Fabian Hirnschal

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 160 lb.

• Born June 23, 1993

Biographical Information

Fabian Hirnschal has played in the Austrian Baseball League and for the Austrian national team.

Hirnschal debuted with the 2009 Schwechat Blue Bats, going 0-2 with a save and a 12.86 ERA and hitting .182/.308/.182. He improved to 2-2, 5.50 in 2010 and batted .267/.323/.267. He fell to 1-5, 12.33 with a save and .196/.245/.196 in 2011. Still a teenager in '12, he moved to the Vienna Wanderers and had a 5.79 ERA and batted .170/.235/.170. In the 2012 European Championship U21, he was 1 for 7 with a run and two RBI and allowed 10 runs (8 earned) in 5 innings. In 2013, he hit .176/.263/.206 and was 0-1 with a 21.60 ERA.

Debuting with Austria's senior national team in the 2013 B-Level European Championship. He started at second base and hit .231/.444/.231 with five walks and four runs in five games in the round-robin, handling 21 chances error-free and not pitching. He tied for 2nd in walks, one behind Martin Brunegraf. In the finale against Russia, with a spot in the 2014 European Championship, he was 0 for 2 but was plunked by Andrey Lobanov and came around to score on a Peter Ferak hit for a 2-0 lead but Russia would rally to win.

He was 0-2 with two saves and a 3.38 ERA for the 2014 Wanderers and hit .216/.356/.270. He hit .214/.421/.286 with five walks and four runs in five games in the 2014 European Championship U21, fielding .889. He tied for 5th in walks. In 2015, he was 4-4 with a 4.50 ERA for Vienna, producing at a .237/.383/.289 clip. He was 10th in ERA, tied for 4th in wins, 2nd in IP (66) and 9th in K (26). After having played the field in the 2013 B-Level Euros, he was used solely as a pitcher in the 2015 B-Level European Championship. He did a fine job out of the bullpen, with 5 2/3 IP (3 H, 0 BB, 5 K), allowing only one unearned run, with a save against Lithuania and a win against Sweden (beating Nicklas Melin). He led the round-robin phase in ERA. He pitched only briefly in the finale against Sweden, replacing Werner Harrasser and retiring Joel Johnson to finish up a 8-5 loss.

The right-hander missed all of 2016 with an ACL injury. He was healthy by the 2016 U-23 Baseball World Cup, he was 0-2 with a 9.31 ERA, losing to Argentina's Federico Robles and Czechia's Tomas Ondra. Returning to the Wanderers in '17, he only pitched three innings (scoreless) while hitting .263/.391/.316. The next year, he struggled at the plate (0-2, 16.88) but hit .277/.368/.373. In the 2018 European Championship Playoff, he was a defensive replacement for Benjamin Salzmann at 2B one game and had two chances error-free; Austria beat Lithuania for a spot in the 2019 European Championship.

Fabian rebounded to 5-1, 3.94 in 2019 and hit .167/.286/.167. He tied for 5th in the ABL in victories. In the 2019 European Championship, he made two appearances. He relieved Ryan Rupp with a 6-5 deficit against France in the 6th, no outs and the bases juiced. He walked Felix Brown to force in a run but struck out Maxime Lefevre. Andy Paz doubled in two and Frédéric Hanvi hit a three-run homer to make it 12-5. He recovered to get Jacques Boucheron and Bastien Dagneau to end the inning. Tobias Kiefer then relieved. His other outing, he relieved Konstantin Teufel in the 5th with a 9-0 deficit versus Spain, one out and yet again the bases loaded. He had a rough day, giving up nine hits, a walk and seven runs (six earned) over the next 1 2/3 IP (all three inherited runners scored) before a mercy rule ending. The big hit was a three-run homer by Javier Monzón.

He was 4 for 27 with 8 walks in 2020, going 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA. In the 2021 Federations Cup, he hit .250/.375/.250 with four runs in six games but fielded only .778 at short. His six errors were double anyone else's in the event. With the 2021 Wanderers, he was at .327/.466/.416 with 20 runs and 25 RBI but only pitched once.