Only three DODDS-Europe softball teams enter this weekend with unbeaten records, and at least one of them will drop from those ranks this weekend. Here’s a look at the teams that survived the first half of the season unscathed.
Hohenfels: The Tigers are the last remaining unbeaten team outside of Division I, and got that way in part by sweeping a Division I program. Hohenfels beat Wiesbaden by scores of 10-9 and 15-8 last weekend, bumping its record to 4-0 on the season.
More Division I opponents await down the stretch of Hohenfels’ schedule. The team takes on Patch this weekend and Vilseck on May 17; happily for Hohenfels, both doubleheader take place on Tiger home turf. A May 9 set against Ansbach breaks up the Division I bookends.
Though they’ve never won a European softball title, the Tigers aren’t newcomers to the championship scene; they reached the semifinals last year and played in the championship game in 2010. This might be the year they break through.
Patch: Not just unbeaten but unchallenged in wins over regional rivals Vilseck and Ansbach, the 6-0 Panthers are poised for another run to the DODDS-Europe Division I title game and, perhaps, their first European softball title since 2011.
Those aspirations will face their stiffest test May 10 when defending champion Ramstein pays a visit to Stuttgart. But Saturday’s set at Hohenfels is also important. The doubleheader presents the opportunity for Patch to face a solid, worthy opponent on unfamiliar ground, mirroring the conditions they’ll face in the upcoming European tournament. A May 17 season-ending set at Wiesbaden could accomplish much of the same for the Panthers.
Ramstein: Marauding across the DODDS-Europe landscape over the season’s first month, the 6-0 Royals are set to dial up the intensity on their continent-wide path of destruction. The defending Division I European champions have eight games scheduled for the rest of the regular season, including four apiece at home and away.
Ramstein’s ramping up for the postseason begins Saturday with a home doubleheader against SHAPE, a solid 2-2 team spending its weekend at Division I Kaiserslautern and Ramstein.
The following weekend is easily the most challenging of their regular season, featuring a Friday visit from problematic Division II pest AFNORTH and a quick turnaround to play Patch on the road a day later. A showdown with local archrival Kaiserslautern rounds out the regular season.
If Ramstein can survive that schedule with a zero still in its loss column, it would be hard to imagine the Royals yielding their European crown.
Twitter: @broomestripes
