Baseball5: crowned in Nîmes on Sunday, the Thiais Tigers team triples the stakes in this French Open

Impériaux, les joueurs et joueuses thaisiens ne se trompent pas dans la célébration : 3 titres de suite.

Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd February took place the French Open, at the Halle des sports Ludivine Furnon in Nîmes. The opportunity for Thiais, titled for the third time in a row, to further establish its dominance in the discipline.

Baseball5 is a sport that is played five against five and, in the end, it is always Thiais Tigers who win. ''It always feels good. We know that in American sport (basketball), the ‘’Three peat’’ (three titles in a row), it was the Los Angeles Lakers who brought that, the Chicago Bulls… it’s always the difficulty of coming back and winning’’, exults the Thiaisian manager, Christophe Goniot.

This weekend, in Nîmes, the teammates of the midfield star, the Franco-Cuban Omar Diodene-Pacheco, never wavered, winners of their nine matches in two days.

Morning or afternoon, same verdict in the derby for Nîmes

Sunday afternoon, the two matches closing this 5th edition of the Open de France were two derbies. In the match for 3rd and 4th place, the Alligagors of Nîmes 1 were opposed to the Barracufive of Montpellier. In the morning, during the Super round, the Héraultais had taken the upper hand over the Gardois (5-4).

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Same thing again a few hours later. In Nîmes, Montpellier once again dictated its law, winning 2 sets to 0 (12-9; 9-3), climbing onto the podium once again (3rd, as in 2024), leaving its best enemy Nîmes at its feet (Nîmes 2 finished 11th and the University of Nîmes, 8th).

''Finishing 4th is a good performance, but it's still a disappointment''

''Finishing 4th is a good performance, but it's still a disappointment because we were aiming, at least, for a podium and a medal'', observed, with mixed feelings, the Nîmes manager, Olivier Skenadji.
Another derby was also being played in the stands: the supporters' derby. In the Nîmes camp, the mascot Alliga'five ensured a good-natured atmosphere, perfectly in keeping with the discipline.

It was just the beginning. The time came for the final, the atmosphere that goes with it and, there too, another derby. This one between teams from the Paris region, pitting Thiais (Val-de-Marne) against Montigny-Le-Bretonneux (Yvelines). If the two cities are in the same region, the Île de France, on the court, however, they have never really been close in score.

Montigny, young but promising

Unsurprisingly, Thiais Tigers dominated a young but promising Cougars team, 2 sets 0. At the end of the 1st set, a Mercy Rule – set stopped if the score gap is too big – was even announced after the 4th set, at 11-0 (12-7 in the 2nd set). The Tigers are still clawing.

''The culmination of all the work we did with the Nîmes staff''

OPEN – ''The club is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, it's the first national event that we've organized here in Nîmes, emphasizes the president of the Nîmes Alligators, Bruno Malvaud. This is the culmination of all the work we did with the Nîmes staff to develop baseball5, in France and in Nîmes.''

This Open was a real success, both popular and sporting. The baseball5 discipline, fun, dynamic and spectacular, aroused the curiosity of neophytes this weekend. At the Alligators club, it is booming. ''Baseball5 is the branch that works best at the Alligators club'', indicates the president from Nîmes.