France Are Champions Of Europe
December 31st 1984 - France have beaten all teams in their path to claim the first ever European Championship. The Frenchmen started the tournament hot winning 15 of 18 games and even though they cooled off a little bit, they were still in very good form by the time the knockout stages came around and they recovered from a 2-0 hole to beat Austria 4 games to 2 in the final.
Code:
W L GB W L GB
France 28 12 - Ireland 25 15 -
Austria 24 16 4 Italy 24 16 1
Czech Republic 23 17 5 Switzerland 23 17 2
Germany 22 18 6 Belgium 22 18 3
England 21 19 7 Norway 21 19 4
Bulgaria 20 20 8 Denmark 20 20 5
Portugal 20 20 8 Greece 19 21 6
Spain 18 22 10 Scotland 18 22 7
Poland 16 24 12 Russia 17 23 8
Finland 15 25 13 Netherlands 16 24 9
Sweden 13 27 15 Hungary 15 25 10
Notes -
Portugal won 7 of their first 8. Netherlands lost 7 of their first 8.
Russia were 7-13, before managing to pull back to .500 at 14-14. Then they fell away.
Switzerland scored 3 in the 9th and 4 in the 10th to beat Hungary 12-8, then the next day they won in extra innings again.
The Swiss led Group B for a long time, but Ireland and Italy overtook them late on and Italy won their final 2 games in Norway to clinch second place.
The longest game of the tournament was Austria's 10-9 win over Bulgaria in 18 innings.
Player Notes -
There were three complete game shutouts on the first day of play -
Finley Sprake (England) v Spain,
Sindre Grondalen (Norway) v Netherlands and
Mirko Bukvajova (Czech Republic) v Germany.
AAA player
Kanitzar Bugajski (Poland) was 7/8 with 2 doubles and 3 home runs in back-to-back wins over Germany.
Austria had a great series against Poland.
Joseph Sykora threw a 2-hitter and
Helmuth Seipel followed that with a 15 strikeout game.
Lukas Happ was 5/5, with 6 runs scored in the second game.
There were two cycles in the tournament, both by Swiss players -
Maternus Luhrmann v Belgium and
Ian Meoni v Russia.
All Tournament Team -
Code:
SP -- Riso Eckhel (AUT) -- 8-0, 1.84 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 0 HR
RP -- David MacIlroy (ENG) -- 1-0, 13 SV, 17 IP, 0.53 ERA, 0.71 WHIP
C -- Billy Pawlett (IRL) -- .325 AVG, 4 HR, 24 RBI, .956 OPS
1B -- Lukas Stoger (AUT) -- .391 AVG, 11 HR, 37 RBI, 1.182 OPS
2B -- Holly Connich (IRL) -- .317 AVG, 8 HR, 36 RBI, 1.027 OPS
3B -- Dolf Pellenaars (BEL) -- .328 AVG, 5 HR, 17 RBI, .995 OPS
SS -- Harlan McRea (IRL) -- .382 AVG, 2 HR, 35 RBI. .980 OPS
LF -- Bernard Wulker (SUI) -- .365 AVG, 7 HR, 22 RBI, 1.015 OPS
CF -- Ian Meoni (SUI) -- .344 AVG, 4 HR, 34 RBI, 1.012 OPS
RF -- Dylan Rosenburg (BEL) -- .369 AVG, 12 HR, 38 RBI, 1.203 OPS
Significant Injuries -
Alois Maloney was injured early on and will miss some time in 1985.
Eskil Junge continued his bad luck with injuries and will miss the early part of next season.
Knockout Stages
Italy 2 France 1
Italy 3
France 4 - France win on a sac fly by Jacquy Gilbert.
France 9 Italy 7 (10) - It was only 4-4 after 9.
France 5
Italy 6
France 9
Italy 10 (10) - France scored 4 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th to tie, then 1 in the 10th to take the lead, but Matthieu D'Urso responded with a walkoff double.
Italy 7
France 15
Italy 1
France 6 - France got all the runs they needed in the first 2 innings. Yoan Lelievre pitched a complete game.
Austria 7 Ireland 6
Austria 1
Ireland 2
Ireland 3
Austria 7 - Lukas Stoger hit a Grand Slam in the 1st inning.
Ireland 8 Austria 7
Ireland 3 Austria 2 (10) - Harlan McRea had a 2 run homer in the 9th to tie it and Barry Mulcahy hit a solo shot in the 10th.
Austria 3 Ireland 1
Austria 4 Ireland 3 (11) - Armin Aerenthal tied it in the 9th with a solo home run, then Josef Schmidt drove in the winning run in the 11th.
Final
(
Pitcher stats - 1st set are 1984 EBL, 2nd set are Euro Champs)
Game 1 starters
Austria: Pauli Erstweiler (14-8, 2.70 ERA, 1.03 WHIP at AAA -- 6-3, 2.49 ERA, 1.08 WHIP)
France: Robert Marion (8-18, 5.53 ERA, 1.23 WHIP -- 5-3, 3.19 ERA, 1.23 WHIP)
Code:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Austria 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 8 1
France 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 7 2
Pauli Erstweiler (AUT) - 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Game 2 starters
Austria: Joseph Sykora (13-11, 3.33 ERA, 1.24 WHIP -- 2-3, 2.83 ERA, 1.05 WHIP)
France: Adrien Pierre (15-12, 3.10 ERA, 1.33 WHIP -- 5-1, 3.56 ERA, 1.16 WHIP)
Code:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Austria 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 3 7 1
France 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 10 0
Oktav Grillparzar (AUT) - 1/1, HR, 2 RBI
Michael Rodier (AUT) - 2/4, 2B, HR, RBI
Game 3 starters
France: Alexis Martin (11-12, 3.57 ERA, 1.21 WHIP -- 8-1, 1.85 ERA, 1.08 WHIP)
Austria: Helmuth Seipel (11-9, 4.22 ERA, 1.48 WHIP -- 2-5, 4.48 ERA, 1.57 WHIP)
Code:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
France 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 12 0
Austria 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 6 0
Alexis Martin (FRA) - 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
Game 4 starters
France: Yoan Lelievre (16-10, 3.21 ERA, 1.21 WHIP -- 6-3, 2.58 ERA, 1.17 WHIP)
Austria: Riso Eckhel (7-13, 3.71 ERA, 1.42 WHIP -- 8-0, 1.84 ERA, 1.07 WHIP)
Code:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
France 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 1 0 6 7 1
Austria 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 4 9 1
Eric Molinier (FRA) - 2/3, 2B, RBI, R
Game 5 starters
France: Marion
Austria: Erstweiler
Code:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
France 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 5 2
Austria 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 4 0
Paulo Simon (FRA) - 1/3, 2-out 2-run HR in 9th
Pauli Erstweiler (AUT) - 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Robert Marion (FRA) - 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
Game 6 starters
Austria: Sykora
France: Pierre
Code:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Austria 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 5 0
France 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 3 11 0
Adrien Pierre (FRA) - 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Jacquy Gilbert (FRA) - 5/5, R
France win the series 4-2
Series MVP:
Jacquy Gilbert (FRA) - 11/27, HR, 5 RBI, 3 R, hit in every game