TJ Toros split two with German National Team

The Tijuana Toros played a pair of exhibition games against the German National Team this past week at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium in Tucson, Arizona.  The Toros are one of three Mexican League teams holding spring training in Tucson while the Germans were in town to prepare for the upcoming World Baseball Classic qualifier tournament in Mexicali.

Manager Luis Sojo's Toros drubbed the Germans, 6-1, Wednesday night at Kino Stadium.  Tijuana scored twice in the first inning on RBI singles from Allan Dykstra and Juan Apodaca, but Germany was able to close the score to 2-1 when Ludwig Glaser's single brought Sascha Lutz from second in a subsequent frame.  Tijuana broke the game open with four runs in the sixth inning, keyed by a two-run RBI triple off the bat of Roman Pena plus run-plating singles by Isaac Rodriguez and Miguel Torrero.  Toros starter Miguel Pena worked two innings and was followed by Jorge Reyes, Mike Serrano, Derrick Miramontes and Jason Urquidez.

The Germans recovered in half a day by beating Tijuana, 3-2, Wednesday morning in Tucson.  The European visitors scored all three runs in a forgettable (for the Toros) second inning when pitcher Alex Sanabia committed two errors to bring in Simon Guhring and Maximilian Boldt, then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Christoph Ziegler from third.  Tijuana threatened in the fifth by loading the bases with one out, but Carlos Valencia was induced to tap into an inning-ending double play to end the threat without bothering the scorer further.  The Toros finally broke through in the seventh when Adan Munoz led off with a double and later scored on an Isaac Rodriguez single.  Eduardo Arredondo later tripled in Omar Quintanilla to make it a 3-2 contest.  Tijuana put the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the top of the ninth, but German pitcher Kevin Trisl got the third out to save the win for the Flying Deutschmen (sorry...couldn't resist).

Germany's national team has been managed by Greg Frady since 2004.  Frady is a Georgia native who played college ball at Troy before entering coaching.  He's entering his tenth season as head coach at Georgia State, a D1 school in the Sun Belt Conference, where his overall record since 2007 is 228-173.

The WBC qualifier in Mexicali will open with a doubleheader on Thursday, March 17 and wrap up three days later.