French Team Outside of Paris

The Senart Baseball and Softball Club, based in a Paris suburb, is the largest such club in France and has been since 2016.  It has nearly 300 members and supports 15 teams at various age levels.  Teams participate in championship play from the Under-9 category to Departmental, as well as the two top divisions: Seniors D1 and D2.

The club was founded as the Baseball Club of Melun-Sénart in 1987 by players who left another club and students who had set up a baseball section at the Lycée George Sand in Mée-sur-Seine.  One of the founders, Mario Brelle, remains the club president.

The club had just one team at first, but it created a team in the junior category in 1990 and in the minimal and cadet categories three years afterward.  It also began a women’s softball team in 1993.

The first men’s team currently plays in the Division Elite, the French first division.  It won the title of French champion in National 1 in 1997 and repeated that feat in 2003.  It won the championship of the Elite division in 2014 and played in the French Series (D1 finals) in 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019.  Senart is still on a 15-season streak of finishing in the top four. The Templars have also won the Challenge de France four times: 2008, 2014, 2017, and 2019.

In 2012, the team inaugurated the first baseball-only stadium in France with artificial turf and lights, located in Lieusaint. It is known as the Stade du Carré Sénart and hosted the Challenge de France tournament in 2012 and 2016, as well as the French Baseball International Tournament in 2014 and 2016.

Website: www.templiers-senart.com