A wild throw zings past Sal Vargas of Kaiserslautern as Cedric Dilling of Germany's Baden Württemberg squad reaches third base Wednesday at Ramstein Air Base. Dilling scored on the play. (Ben Bloker / S&S)
A wild throw zings past Sal Vargas of Kaiserslautern as Cedric Dilling of Germany's Baden Württemberg squad reaches third base Wednesday at Ramstein Air Base. Dilling scored on the play. (Ben Bloker / S&S)
Dust flies as Joseph Sampson of Kaiserslautern tags out David Schmich of Baden Württemberg. (Ben Bloker / S&S)
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — The Kaiserslautern Military Community All-Stars hit a roadblock Wednesday on their way to Little League Baseball’s European Regional Tournament, dropping Game 1 of the best-of-three Germany championship series 10-7 to the Baden-Württemberg All-Stars.
Pascal Winkler, relying mainly on a fastball made to seem faster by crafty use of his breaking pitch, gave up 12 hits and all seven KMC runs in his 5 2/3 innings.
"My fastball and curve were my best pitches," Winkler said through his father after the game, adding that he would like to have gone the distance if the 85-pitch limit hadn’t stopped him.
Winkler struck out six and walked one before yielding to reliever Cedric Dilling with KMC’s 11-12-year-olds down to their last out and a runner on third. Dilling, whose solo homer in the top of the inning padded the German national champs’ lead, fanned Chase Morash to end the game.
"He’s very calm," Baden-Württemberg coach Geoff Atwater said of Dilling. "He was a starter for us in the Germany tournament, but we’re using him in middle relief and as a closer in this series."
Baden-Württemberg’s real damage came in a five-run fourth after KMC had taken its only lead, 4-3, in its previous at-bat. David Schmidt stroked a two-run, inside-the-park home run for the biggest blow of the frame for the Germans. Schmidt’s drive down the left-field line just eluded the diving Tyler Pecht and rolled to the fence.
Left-hander Joshua Neal, one of the heroes of KMC’s 2-0 sweep of Stuttgart-Wiesbaden in last week’s German-American playoffs, took the loss. He allowed six runs, four of them earned, in his 3 1/3 innings, striking out seven and allowing five hits.
Neal went 3-for-3 at the plate, stroking two singles and a double. He drove in Tyrus De Witt, who also had three hits, with the seventh run for KMC in the bottom of the sixth and final inning.
Game 2 is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at Ramstein’s Donnelly Park. A Baden-Württemberg victory will send the Germans to the European Regional July 31-Aug. 9 in Kutno, Poland. A KMC victory will force a decisive Game 3 on Friday in Mannheim.
