Ramstein's Christian Roy pitches during the first game of a doubleheader against Wiesbaden on April 6, 2024, on Clay Kaserne in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)

The baseball field outside Southside Fitness Center on Ramstein Air Base, Germany, has seen flashes of gold throughout the spring.

It came from an unexpected source. In three practices per week, the Ramstein Royals shed their typical white and blue for yellow socks. The reason: The Royals’ lone two losses came last year at the beginning and end to Stuttgart, including a 15-5 shellacking in the DODEA Division I European title game.

Even going undefeated during the 2024 regular season and taking the top seed into this year’s European championships Wednesday through Friday in the Kaiserslautern Military Community hasn’t made Ramstein forget those defeats.

“We wear yellow socks to remind us that we still are in second place to Stuttgart,” junior Christian Roy said. “We wear those yellow socks to remember that feeling when we lost that game.”

The Royals (11-0, 9-0) may be motivated by last year’s disappointment, but coach Alfredo Rios has noticed something else driving this squad: togetherness.

The camaraderie among the players is off the charts, according to Rios. Combined with the team’s serious nature and that drive from last spring, the Royals keep outclassing their opponents, outscoring them 184-27 in 2024.

“The bonding that I’ve seen this year outweighs every other type of bonding that I’ve ever seen in any other team, even with my championship team two years ago,” Rios said. “These guys, it’s just like a brotherhood. I see it in school in the hallways. I see it everywhere when I see the boys.”

Another positive is the squad’s depth.

Rios said he believed the team had enough pitchers to get through the tournament in 2023, only to run out of arms in the championship game. The Royals focused on expanding their options this season.

Assistant coach Calvin Delp’s sole job has been to build a big-league style rotation of six guys. Senior Luke Seaburgh and junior Caden Nims are hard-throwing righties, junior Conor McGinty uses his offspeed pitches to his advantage, righty Roy likes to overpower the batters who are struggling and use off-speed pitches for others, senior righty Liam Delp has numerous options in his arsenal and junior Jacob Vinson offers a second lefty arm.

The rest of the lineup gives Rios a headache when deciding who will play. He said the Royals have plenty of guys on the bench who could be starters, but only nine can be on the field at a time.

“Our depth is just incredible,” senior Jackson Arthaud said. “We got five or six really good pitchers. Our entire lineup I would put against anyone in the league. I think our depth makes us excellent.”

Still, that depth will be tested during the tournament.

Ramstein won two one-run games during the regular season – a 4-3 decision over Stuttgart on March 16 and a 6-5 victory over rival Kaiserslautern on May 4. Add in a Vilseck team that went 8-2 against Division I opposition with doubleheader splits against Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern, and the competition will be fierce.

“We’re the hardest-working team in DODEA,” Arthaud said. “So as long as we do what we’re supposed to, we’re going to do just fine.”

Naples’ Ella Grace throws towards home in the Wildcats’ 10-2 victory over Vicenza on Saturday, April 20, 2024. Grace allowed one run and two hits in three innings of work. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)

Divisions II/III

Naples coach Jim Davis is used to seeing home runs in the scorebook. At least a couple. Maybe even just one.

But as his Wildcats enter the DODEA Divisions II/III European championships Wednesday through Friday in the Kaiserslautern Military Community, the team has goose egg in more than just the loss column. They haven’t sent a single ball over the fence yet.

“This is probably the most small-ball team I’ve had,” Davis said. “We’re not hitting for power. That’s the biggest difference.”

With the defense Naples has, though, it’s not as though it’s needed the power at the plate.

The two-time defending champs head into another European tournament as the top seed in Divisions II/III, posting a run differential of 174 in just 15 games. The Wildcats (15-0, 13-0) have allowed just 24 runs all season.

The Naples coach said the defense isn’t committing many errors, which is helping the team get outs.

On top of that, the Wildcats’ rotation is the strongest in the division. Senior Ella Grace, who started and won the past two title games, leads the staff with her pinpoint accuracy, while hard-throwing freshman Kenny Pirches has stepped into the No. 2 spot in place of the injured Logan Barker and has produced significant performances. Meanwhile, Brady Price, a transfer from SHAPE, and A.J. Lopez have stepped onto the mound to give Davis a pair of extra options for the tournament.

“Just for giggles, I was like, ‘Are we scoring as much as we had in the past?’” Davis said, “I tallied it up and we’re a few points down, but the defense is only giving up 1.7 a game. You usually can win a lot of high school ballgames if you can keep it under two runs.”

One thing that worries Davis heading into Wednesday is an air of complacency.

All five of Aviano’s losses have come against Naples, but the Saints have played the Wildcats the closest so far: a 6-5 Naples win in the second half of a doubleheader April 13.

Add in the fact that just three players are left from the 2022 title team and another three who were on the team last year, and their coach said the team still has plenty to prove.

“We got to stay focused and not take the last two years’ championships for granted,” Davis said. “The core of the kids has done a great job of expressing what the expectation is and leading by example of how they want this program to go, even though there aren’t that many of them we retain year in and year out.”