Rookie Erstweiler Is Perfect
April 30th 1987 - When he won 6 games at the 1984 European Championships as a 22 year-old, it seemed that Pauli Erstweiler was destined for EBL stardom.
At the time he was still playing in the AAA British League for the Crawley Weavers, an affiliate of the Copenhagen Armada, but the experts were all in agreement that it would not be long before he made the major European League.
As it turned out he spent another two full seasons in AAA after a slightly disappointing 1985 season. His chance at an EBL roster spot only arose after Copenhagen failed to sign Alexis Martin in the off-season and didn't really replace him.
It didn't take him long to make a massive impact on the EBL, as he pitched the league's first ever perfect game yesterday against the reigning champion Berlin Dragons. The Austrian left-hander needed only 100 pitches to retire 27 Dragon hitters, striking out 6 on the way and keeping Berlin off the bases all day long.
It was only his 5th career start and continues a superb start to his EBL career. The stats show a 4-0 record with an eye-popping ERA of 0.79 and only 17 hits allowed in 34 innings.
Pauli 'Perfect' Erstweiler will certainly be a name to look out for in the coming weeks and years.