Tag Archives: Leksand Lumberjacks

Welcome to the 2015 season!

So the Schedule for the 2015 season is official. The first game of the season is away vs Botkyrka on the 2:nd of May. Gothenburg Sharks won the last series of the season, the series to stay in the Elitserien vs Botkyrka. It so happened that Karlskoga Bats decided to leave the Elitseries and reboot in the second division. Bokyrka took Karlskogas spot. This season starts how the last one ended, versus Botkyrka.

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The home opener will be a week later, the 9th of May vs Leksand Lumberjacks. Leksand lost the championship to Stockholm in the 5th and final game of the final series.

The history repeats itself

The Gothenburg Sharks will have to face Karlskoga Bats once again the upcoming weekend. The teams met at Shark Park just more than a week ago in a double header where Karlskoga Bats won both games. Even though the numbers were greatly in favor of Karlskoga the games were closer than the numbers were. Gothenburg will travel to Karlskoga for the three game series to directly stay in the Elitseries the upcoming weekend! Two games on Saturday and possibly a third and directly deciding game on Sunday.

Karlskoga played in the other end of the series just last year and lost the cup in the fourth game vs Stockholm. In 2012, Karlskoga went all the way and won the cup in the fourth game of the five game series vs Leksand.

The loser of the series will have to face the winner of the second division play offs in a three game series. The winner will play in the Eliteseries 2015.

The Karlskoga Bats are of course favorites to win the first series. Stockholm was also the favorite to win vs Sölvesborg to go into the final the past weekend. Stockholm was down 6-5 starting bottom ninth in the third and directly decisive game and managed to turn it around to win! Sölvesborg was just inches from giving Stockholm two losses on the same weekend. That was almost twice as many as Stockholm lost in the entire season! The Stockholm Monarchs showed good morale and turned the game around and earned a very well deserved spot in the final vs Leksand after only one loss in the regular season.

The Gothenburg Sharks played Alby Stars in the playdown last year to stay in the series. Those games were away at Seagull Park where the Sharks almost killed the series in the second of the games. The second game went into extra innings and then the darkness took over and had to be taken up again prior to a possible game three. The game two of the series was taken up again the day after but the Sharks failed to capitalize on the extra nights sleep losing the game in the twelfth inning. That was just pure fuel to the Sharks bats which caught fire. The Alby Stars had to resign after eight innings losing the game 5-18. The Alby Stars eventually lost to Sölvesborg who took over the Alby Stars spot in the Elitseries.

The Sharks have been into a playdown before. They came out on top. Will the history repeat itself once again? The odds are against, the players are for! Go Sharks!

Partial success against Sölvesborg

The Sharks managed to win one game but had to give up one in the double header played the past weekend. They will bring that with them on the road versus Leksand Lumberjacks the upcoming weekend.

Sölvesborg Firehawks brought the former Gothenburg Sharks players Brian Strawn and Evan Porter and a lot of faces shined up saying hello to their formed teammates and friends.

Game one was close to nothing but hungry Sharks. They made it hard for Sölvesborg to get on base and they really hit the ball well. Pitching worked, batting worked and defense worked. It looked really easy to play ball out there for the Sharks. The Sharks wasn’t satisfied with just hits, several extra base hits were noticed. Spencer Kreissberg pitched and gave up 4 hits, 2 walks and 7 strike outs. Laffin, which struggled a bit with his bat this year was two for four with one run and two runs batted in. Even though Joe went 0 for 2 he walked twice and scored once. He is .222 for the season but his on base percentage is .359. Weidolf had a very good game at bat and went 2 for 3 and walked once. Patrick Carlson joined the team for the first time this season and left the day with a .333 batting average with two extra base hits. José Muñoz is .400 for the season after Saturdays games. Norderum produced as usual at bat was 2 for 3 with one walk. The game was cut early when the Sharks scored their 10th run in the seventh.

The Sharks went into the second game full with confidence after the win. Norderum started on the mound. Something was troubling Jason. He started with a 1-2-3 inning and everything looked fine. He had a really tough time commanding his pitches and set a record high hit by pitch and walked three in the game. He had several guys at two strikes but put them on base due to walks to hit by pitch a few times. He was taken out of the game in the fourth and hopefully there was nothing serious troubling him. Despite this, the standing was 1-1 entering the fourth with even though the Firehawks was commanding the game until that point. Jason was responsible for the two Firehawks on base with no outs and Hiba entered the mound. For some reason the Sharks totally lost it at the time. Errors happened and the defense totally broke down. Sölvesborg scored no less than eight times of which Hiba was responsible for one and Jason two. The Sharks did failed to recover after that devastating fourth inning. The game ended 1-12 in the seventh.

It is hard to tell what really happened in that second game. Perhaps the team just ran out of fuel after the first really successful game which they dominated?

We wish the Sharks best of luck on the road versus Leksand Lumberjacks and welcome them back 26th of July when Stockholm is visiting Shark Park!

Weekend wrap up

The past weekend was full of baseball!

Leksand @ Gothenburg

Leksand Lumberjacks was visiting Gothenburg in the Elitseries. A beautiful day where the games was preceded by the national anthem and the ceremonial first pitch. A lot of people found their way to the Shark Park which was offering both sun and some occasional clouds! The spectators could not only enjoy the weather but also some good pitching from both teams. Even though the game was not as tight as a Shark fan would have hoped, it was an exciting one where the Sharks failed to produce enough runs in the end. Even though it wasn’t the failing factor in this game, the defense needs polishing. The Sharks seems to have problems producing the extra sharpness and have the quicker feet when needed for the final out. The passiveness or perhaps choosing a play with a lot of margin let Leksand on base a few too many times.

Game two featured pretty much all of the Gothenburg pitching staff available. Coach Anders did what he could to keep the arms fresh not letting each of them too many innings. Even though the runs let was a few too many, two runs scored is not enough to win a game on this level.

Game one ended 6-1 and the second game ended 12-2. Both games in favour of Leksand. A well deserved win according to how the game was played.

Malmö @ Gothenburg B

The Gothenburg team in the second division welcomed Malmö Pilots to Shark Park on the two Sunday games. The Gothenburg team featured youngsters,old timers and up and coming players who all share the love of the game. Malmö showed off some good pitching and a tight defense which made it hard for the Sharks to get on base. Malmö capitalized on some mistakes made by the Gothenburg defense but must be given the credit they deserved for their hot bats. Brian Jordan with the Pilots left the game 8 for 8.

Sölvesborg @ Stockholm

The first game of the day was a tight one. The game ended 2-0 to Stockholm. Jacob Claesson with the Stockholm Monarchs pitched all nine innings not giving up a single run. The Sölvesborg pitcher Eddie Aucoin gave up the game losing run in the forth. If game one was tight, game two was totally the opposite! Sölvesborg started out fine with a two run lead, but Stockholm took over after that. Karl Knutsson started off with the pitching and was relieved by Mathias Person for an inning. Karl then entered the mound once again, but failed to produce the energy to stand up for the Stockholm offense. Rickard Ödmo took them to an early finish in the sixth where the game ended 5-20. Stockholm is still undefeated but was challenged for the first time in game one.

Karlskoga @ Sundbyberg

The Karlskoga Bats was coming from back to back losses versus Leksand (0-10 and 1-2) and Sundbyberg on the other end was 2-0 versus Sölvesborg (1-17 and 4-7). The Bats took their first win of the season in game one but came up short in the second game. That puts Karlskoga one win ahead of Gothenburg. The Bats are off to Stockholm next.

Sundbyberg won todays game over Akademin comfortable 16-5 (7).

Gothenburg on the road

The Sharks will head for Sölvesborg on Saturday. Both teams are looking for their first wins of the season and someone will break their track record. Exiting weekend coming up.

Next home game

The next home game is May 24 when Sundbyberg is visting Shark Park!

And we’re off

Finally! The first game of the season is history and we can look forward to a new season of baseball!

The Sharks travelled to Stockholm for the first game. Stockholm had already begun their season with double header versus Leksand the previous week. Stockholm won those two games comfortably.

Jason Norderum started pitching in game one for the Sharks. He let one run, which wasn’t earned in the four innings he pitched. Eventually, Gothenburg let 10 runs, only giving up five hits. The amount of walks Gothenburg gave up turned out to be costly. The Claesson’s of the Stockholm pitching staff gave up four hits and two walks which the Sharks failed to capitalize on.

Game two were cut early due to the weather but they managed to squeeze in five innings. Gothenburg put themselves up on the board in the third inning when Jason hit a single to the right, where both Joe Lankford and Simon Tysk managed to score! Stockholm started game two by giving Hiba a severe headache. Stockholm scored no less than six runs in the first and four in the second. They managed to score once in the third, but the bleeding stopped there. However, those runs in the first and second was more than enough to put Gothenburg in the backseat and Gothenburg failed to recover. Gothenburg did as Leksand the week before, left Stockholm empty handed.

While Gothenburg was visiting Stockholm, Leksand won two games vs Karlskoga Bats. Karlskoga lost game one 10-0 and the game lasted only until seven innings. Game two was quite the opposite and was a tight game where Leksand came out on the front winning 2-1.

Sölvesborg who lost two games to the Akademin in their opening game got a visit from Sundbyberg. It was Sundbybergs first game of the season and they were pumped! Scoring no less than 17 times in game one. The second game got a bit tighter where Karl Knutsen pitched the entire game for Sölvesborg. Sundbyberg’s national team player Philip Gajzler drove in a two run homer in the ninth and set the final score to 4-7.

Leksand will go on the road and visit Gothenburg Sharks home opener on Shark Park. You are welcome to join us watching the ceremonial first pitch of the season and two exciting games! Please note that game one starts at 12.

A day to get past

The double header versus Stockholm today exposed Shark baseball where it is today. My predictions that we were past easy mistakes and being stressed out at plays was wrong. Stockholm got us right where they wanted us. They showed off a good defense where the Sharks did not get anything easy. Stockholm offered almost no mistakes and what could be called a solid defense which the Sharks failed to go by.

I tried to argue that there was something going with the Shark offense that wasn’t really out there yet. That did not show today. Stockholm Baseball almost shut us down completely. The solid pitching of Stockholm was too much for us. One can’t really blame the bottom of the Gothenburg batting order that got struck out looking too often. The other parts of the team wasn’t there to threathen the pitchers nor challenge the defense. That combined with almost no mistakes from Stockholm produces the offensive figures of the Sharks today. Two runs after fourteen innings. Stockholm scored 30.

I’m not sure there is anything to learn from todays games. The team just need to step up defensively and back up one another. When error situations do occur, be there to backup the plays. Take the full defense job and run the extra meter to be the back up. I guess it all comes down to practice more together. Minimizing the errors and when all else fails, score runs!

Checking around what happened around baseball today in Sweden we got two victories from the Karlskoga Bats playing Alby away. The first game ended 3-15 (7). The other game was probably rain shortened 1-8 (5). Leksand and Sunbyberg shared one win each. First game to Sundbyberg 7-10, then Leksand bounced back winning 8-4.

Todays most surprising moment was when I realized that Leksand made it to Twitter! I’ve been looking for updates from that part of Sweden for over two years and I seriously started to think that they didn’t have internet. We applaud them and are looking forward to more updates!

The Gothenburg Sharks needs to get todays losses off their shoulders quickly. On the national day of Sweden, on Thursday we are welcoming the Akademin to Shark Park as the last game before the summer vacation. Subscribe to the calendar to make sure you are up to date!