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NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, 2-3.5.2004

Serbian baseball season started on Sunday May 2nd 2004 on Ada field in Belgrade. Vojvodina (Novi Sad) and Junior (Belgrade) met in the opening game this season, game ended with the score of 25-3 for Vojvodina, young pitcher of Vojvodina Nikola Karacon pitched a no-hitter with 20 strikeouts.Vojvode (Zemun)had an easy win against Mud Cats (American Embassy team).Pitcher Kozjak pitched a shutout.

  Beograd'96 and the Dogs team achieved their first wins in the Serbia and Montenegro League.Despite some trouble Beograd96 team reached its first win this season over Juniori 21-11.Dogs team made a surprising win over the >vicechampions Vojvode 15-14.In a game loaded with errors on both sides Dogs's pitcher Gojko Stanarevic pitched a complete game.Next weekend Dogs will face Vojvodina (Novi Sad),while the Beograd96 will host the Zajcki from Ljubljana in the third round of the Interleague.

INTERLEAGUE, Ljubljana, 24. - 25.04.2004.

Beograd96 won its first game in Interleague this year beating Sleepewakers of Szentendere 13-2, and showed that they could beat anyone this year.Nikola Karacon was awesome on the mound for Beograd96 (loaned from Vojvodina for the Interleague games). Aleksandar Zonic did extremely well in offense with 4 hits in the game. Nagykanizsa (Nadjkaniza) 25.04.2004. After a win in Szentendere and a good period of play against the Ants of Nagykanizse Beograd96's defense allowed the opponent to take the game over by commiting 3 errors and allowing 5 runs.The game ended 5-4 Nagykanizse after Beograd96's lead 3-0.Beograd96's record in Interleague is now 1-3.Next round Beograd96 will host Zajcki from Ljubljana on May 8th 2004.

INTERLEAGUE, Ljubljana, 17. - 18.04.2004.

Beograd96 suffered two defeats in the first round of the Interleague, on
Saturday April 17th Jezice were too strong for Beograd96.Bad start (10-0 in
2. inning) meant the end of the game for Beograd96 who was unable to make a
comeback against a team such as Jezice. Game ended with a score 12-1 for
Jezice.
On Sunday April 18th Zajcki beat Beograd96 4-1.Due to  rain game was ended
in the 7. inning.Better pitching for our team was the cause of less runs
earned than on Saturday but unfortunately offense did not deliver in the
clutch moments for Beograd96 (12 LOB in 6 innings).
Next round Beograd96 travels to Hungary and will play on Saturday against
the Sleepwalkers(Szentendere) and Nagykanizse on Sunday.

Ljubljana, 10. - 11.04.2004.

BC Beograd96 placed 5th at 2. memorial tournament "Ales Smrekar-Smreky".BK
Jezžica, BK Zajčki, BK Golovec (Ljubljana),BK Mečerice (Kopar), BK Vojvodina
(Novi Sad) i BK Rovigo (ITA) participated in this tournament alongside BC
Beograd96.On the first day of the tournament in group games Beograd96 beat
Ježice 7-6, and lost the second game to Zajčki 6-0.Due to less runs scored
than Zajčki or Ježice ( BK Jezica - BK Zajčki 2-0) Beograd96 played for 5th
place and beat BK Mečerice 14-6, and Vojvodina 7-6. Team from Italy placed
first in the second group beating Vojvodina 8-0, and BK Golovec 4-0.Golovec
beat Vojvodina 8-2.Semi-finals BK Zajčki- BK Golovec 8-1 and BK Ježica - BK
Rovigo 2-3. Ježica beat Golovec 2-1 and placed third. Zajčki won the finals
beating Rovigo 10-1. Vojvodina took 6th beating Meèerice 8-6.
Final order
1.Zajčki     Ljubljana
2.Rovigo     Rovigo
3.Ježica     Ljubljana
4.Golovec    Ljubljana
5.Beograd'96 Beograd
6.Vojvodina  Novi Sad
7.Mečerice   Koper
Following weekend BC Beograd96 will travel to Ljubljana for the opening
rounds of the Interleague. Beograd96 will play at Ježice on Saturday 15h and
at Zajčki on Sunday 11h.

Charleroi Belgium-Cologne Germany

As a part of spring training for the upcoming season BC Beograd '96 played
practice games in Belgium city of Charleroi and German city of Cologne. On
March 13th, 2004. Belgrade team beat local team Blackharpies 17-9, and on
the following day a member of Belgium premier league Walez Cardinals 18-6.
Two days later team traveled to Cologne where a practice was held with
German premier league team Cologne Cardinals. Practice was held by Troy
Williams, coach from United States, who is the new coach of Cologne
Cardinals. A practice game was held on the following day and the host won
7-2. On April 10th, and 11th 2004. BC Beograd96 will participate in a
memorial tournament "Ales Smrekar" in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Last year team
took 4th place. Following teams have confirmed their participation: Golovec,
Jezica, Zajcki (Ljubljana, SLO), Beograd96, Vojvodina (SER) and a team from
Italy.

BC Beograd96 won the EUROPAKUP in Austria

After placing third last year, BC Beograd96 became this year's winner of the EUROPAKUP indoor tournament held in a small Austrian town called Going on Feb 7th and 8th 2004. The title came after Beograd96' 1-0 win over Ljubljana Zajcki team. Beograd96 played in following roster: Jevtić,Arandjelović,Parčina,Bozović,Pantelić,Ivković,Kukoleča A.,Ivanić,Ačanski,Zezlina,Arnez i Vučević. Team took first place in our group after beating Schwetzingen Braves 7-1( P - Vučević), Munchen Caribes 3-0 ( P-Jevtić) i Dachau Firetigers 2-0(P-Arandjeloviæ). Kufstein Vikings 1-0( P-Arnez) were defeated in the semi-finals. Jevtić pitched the final game for BC Beograd96. One day ski passes, a trophy and a bottle of champagne were awarded to BC Beograd96. Homerun derby (Zezlina - Beograd'96; 3HR), pitching derby and speed up derby (Vadas - Zajcki) were held on the first day. Unfortunately tournament organizer Mike Raitmeier announced that the next year's tournament will be the final one. More at www.wolfins.com

Groups for European Championships announced

European Baseball Confederation held a congress on Saturday February 7, 2004 in Madrid and held ballots to determine groups for upcoming championships. BC Beograd96 will play from June 14th to 20th 2004. in Blagoevgrad (BUL) with Oslo (NOR), Kranjski Lisjaki (SLO), Maroussi (GRE), Balashikha (RUS) and Buffalos (BUL). European Championship will be held in Regensburg (GER) 31.07.-08.08.2004 and our National team will play in group with Austria, Ireland and Finland.

BC Beograd96 in Austria

From February 5th-7th 2004. BC Beograd96 will participate in an indoor European club championship in Going, Austria. 16 teams from Austria, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland and Serbia will participate in this tournament. BC Beograd96 placed third last year.

Interleague meeting held in Belgrade...

BC Beograd ’96 organized a meeting for the heads of the Interleague on Saturday, December 20, 2003. The meeting took place at the facilities of the Greek and Serbian Friendship. The representatives from the Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia got together to discuss the rules of this regional competition for the next season. Guest at this meeting was a representative of the BC Buffalos-Blagoevgrad from Bulgaria. The following agreement was established:
1. there will be 10 teams (in worst case, there will be 8 participating next season)
2. the participation in the Interleague will cost 50EUR and an application for the league must be submitted by January 31st 2004, while the payment must be done by the March 31st 2004
3. Competition will begin on April 17th 2004, and will last for eight weeks. It ends on July 4th 2004.
4. In case of a delay (only in cases of bad weather), there will be no make-up games unless it's vital for the final standings
5. Make-up games will be played on September 28th and 29th, 2004.
6. Each team will play with each other at least once. The schedules will be designed by the commissioner.
7. The Final Four tournament will be played on September 11th and 12th 2004. The Final Four will be played by the four top ranking teams; tournament will be organized by the number one ranked team.
8. League will be played with wooden bats.
9. Official balls are DIAMOND D1, and WILSON A1010

UMPIRES:
1. Host team will provide 3 umpires (at least 2) umpires.
2. For the Final Four tournament host will provide three umpires while other three umpires will come from other countries playing in the Interleague even if the teams from that country don’t qualify for the Final Four tournament.

STATS:
1. Host teams are in obligation to send stats and umpire’s notes to the commissioner by the first Wednesday following the game.
2. If the above mentioned is not sent to the commissioner by the deadline, home association will be fined with 30EUR and with 10EUR for every following violation
3. Baseball League of Croatia will provide the web coverage of the whole league and will make all the stats available on the internet.
4. The trade deadline is May 20th 2004.