GERMANY – Mike Bolsenbroek and Boris Bokaj combined on a six-hitter, and the Buchbinder Legionaere beat the Paderborn Untouchables 5-1 Saturday to complete a stunning comeback to win the 2011 German Championship.
The Legionaere, which dropped the first two games of the best-of-five title series before claiming three consecutive wins, captured its third championship in four years.
Bolsenbroek worked seven scoreless innings before exiting in the eighth to a boisterous standing ovation from the 2,630 spectators at the Armin Wolf Arena in Regensburg. Bokaj collected the final five outs to earn the save.
The reigning German champion tagged Paderborn ace Eugen Heilmann for a score in the third on Ludwig Glaser’s run-scoring single. Skipper Martin Helmig’s squad tacked on two more runs in the seventh before the Untouchables chased Bolsenbroek in the eighth to close the gap to 3-1.
Richard Klijn capped the scoring with a two-run single in the ninth to become the first Bundesliga squad to win back-to-back titles since Paderborn in 2005.
SERIES-AT-A-GLANCE:
Paderborn Untouchables 4, Buchbinder Legionaere 3 (10)
Paderborn Untouchables 1, Buchbinder Legionaere 0
Buchbinder Legionaere 5, Paderborn Untouchables 0
Buchbinder Legionaere 7, Paderborn Untouchables 5
Buchbinder Legionaere 5, Paderborn Untouchables 1
(Buchbinder Legionaere wins series 3-2)
Marvin Moore is a freelance international baseball writer who coached in Europe for six years. He currently teaches baseball to poverty-stricken Filipino boys at the Future Stars Baseball School.
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Eric Bynum is Managing Editor here at Baseball de World and an ESL teacher in South Korea. He has played and/or written about baseball for the past 30 years and is an avid Atlanta Braves fan. Eric also writes for Braves Baseball World and for Call to the Pen.
