(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Yvonne Krabbendam)
       Czechs win Prague Baseball Week
Nederlands
  PRAGUE 4 / PRAGUE (Czech Rep.) -
The team of the 3n2 International Stars is the winner of this years Prague Baseball Week.
On Saturday-evening (June 30), the international squad won 10-1 in the Final against the Under-23 Team of the Czech Republic.
The fifth and final day of the Prague Baseball Week was a beautiful and sunny day with a clear blue sky and a temperature of 21 degrees Celsius.
The day opened with the game for seventh and eighth place between Poland and Russia.
The Russians won 12-2.
This game was followed with the match-up between NSW Blue Sox and Belarus.
The Australians won 9-4 to finish in fifth place.
...Belgian Umpire Damon Baesen behind the plate...
(© Photo: Yvonne Krabbendam) |
Next on the schedule was the Bronze Medal-game between International Future Stars against the Under-18 Team of Italy.
This game, which Belgian Damon Baesen as Home Plate Umpire, was won by the Future Stars with a 7-5 score.
The Future Stars led 4-0 after four innings, but Italy then came alongside by scoring four runs in the top of the fifth.
Italy then took a 5-4 lead in the seventh.
The International Team scored the tying run in its seventh and added two runs in the eighth to win and finish in third place.
Max Draijer scored a run and also batted in one for the Future Stars.
In the Final, the 3n2 International Stars collected 13 basehits, including three by Joe Wittig.
The team was coached by Dutchman Kevin Roovers, who was to be assisted by Shurty Tremus, who also was his Assistant when he was the Head Coach of Twins last year in the Dutch big league.
However, Tremus was unable to travel to Prague due to working commitments.
The Czech squad got only five basehits.
Dutch umpire Henri van Heijningen was behind the plate in the Final, which was played under fine circumstances, as it was still nice and sunny.
Before the start of the Final, the American Ambassador addressed the spectators.
...The First Place Trophy...
(© Photo: Yvonne Krabbendam) |
The International Stars opened the score with two runs in the first inning of the well-visited game.
The runs were scored on a walk and hit batter with the bases loaded.
In the fifth, the team got the bases loaded when the first three batters walked.
With one out, a run is added on a force play-grounder.
Another run was scored in the sixth when Alex Rubanowitz homered with one out.
Leading 4-0, the team rallied for six runs in the seventh inning to take a decisive lead.
Two singles and a passed ball accounted for the first three runs, then Alex Carter added a 3-run homerun.
The Czechs then avoided a mercy-rule loss by scoring a run in the bottom of the seventh inning off of reliever Yasuda Akimasa on a grounder.
Wes Roemer started for the International Stars.
In six innings, he struckout five hitters and gave up only four basehits.
(June 30)
(thanks to Yvonne Krabbendam for providing additional informational for these recaps)
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