Draci Brno opened the season on April 9 at home with a small 2-1 win against Blesk Jablonec.
On Saturday, the team recorded a bigger 13-1 victory and on Sunday, Brno won with a 7-1 score.
Sunday's game was a home-game for Blesk, but all three games were played at the site of Draci Brno, the Městský baseballový stadión, which has been the site of several international games.
...Pavel Budský hitting for the Czech...
...Team during the 2012 European...
...Championship in Rotterdam (Neth.)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Draci Brno is the most successful team in the Czech Republic with the most national titles and has several National Team-players on its roster, including Martin Červinka, Radim Chroust, Arnošt Dubový, Adam Hajtmar and Jakub Hajtmar, who all played for the Czech Team in the 2019 European Championship in Germany.
Also still playing for the team is 47-year old club-icon and former National Team-player Pavel Budský.
In Friday's opener, Jablonec opened the score in the top of the fourth inning off of starting pitcher Radim Chroust.
Brno answered with two runs in the bottom of the sixth off starter Jiří Hikl.
Brno was outhit 8-7, but Jablonec committed three errors.
Arnošt Dubový went 3-for-4 for Brno, while Mário Gottschall did the same for Jablonec.
In the second game on Saturday, Brno initially led only 3-1 after three innings, but then rallied for four runs in the fourth and expanded the lead in the next two at bats.
Jablonec scored its lone run in the third inning and recorded only four basehits.
Brno collected 13 basehits and again Arnošt Dubový was productive, this time hitting 4-for-4, including a homerun.
He also scored four runs and batted in three.
In Sunday's game, the score was 1-1 after six innings.
The visiting Brno then scored three runs in both the seventh and eighth inning.
The team recorded twelve basehits.
Winning pitcher Marcus Jensen struckout eight batters in seven innings.
The American gave up five basehits.
Cardion Hroši Brno opened on Friday with an 11-1 win against Olympia Blansko at Baseballový areál Strawberry Field in Blansko.
The next day, the team from Brno won 6-4.
On Sunday, playing at home at Sportovní areál Hroch in Brno, the team completed its Opening Weekend-sweep with a 13-9 win.
In the first game, Brno Hippos took an early lead, scoring five runs in the first at bat.
The team collected 14 basehits, including four by American Kellen Croce, who was 4-for-5 with a triple and scored three runs.
Martin Kollár also scored three runs and also batted in three.
Winning pitcher Lukáš Hlouch struckout ten batters in the five innings he pitched.
On Saturday, the game was much closer.
Olympia Blansko led 3-1 after five innings, but then the Brno-squad came alongside.
Both teams scored once in the seventh.
Brno then decided the game by scoring twice in the top of the ninth inning.
Lukáš Trunkát had three basehits for the winning team.
In the third game, Brno Hippos took an early comfortable lead, scoring nine runs in the first three innings.
Trailing 9-0 after four innings, Blansko scored two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth.
Brno got three runs back in the bottom of the sixth, but Blansko narrowed the score to 12-9 by scoring three runs in the top of the seventh.
The home-playing Brno-team added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh.
The team collected 12 basehits, including six off of Venezuelan starting pitcher Luis Miguel Rengel Villaroel, who also gave up the nine runs in the three innings he pitched.
Lukaš Trunkát batted in four runs for Brno.
Blansko got eight basehits off of six different pitchers, including a homerun by Ladislav Kabeš.
In the Opening Weekend, Sokol Hluboká, which returned to the highest league after sixteen seasons, swept Eagles Praha, but that was changed to only one victory.
Playing at Eagles Park in Prague, the team opened with a 2-1 win on Friday-evening, then won 4-2 on Saturday-afternoon.
On Sunday, playing at home at the baseball-field in Hluboká nad Vltavou, Sokol recorded a 7-0 shutout.
However, after completion of the weekend, it was determined that Hluboká had violated the rule of having too much foreign players on the field at the same time.
Therefore, the Czech Baseball Association declared the first two wins a forfeit and awarded two 9-0 wins to Eagles, which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Only two foreign players are allowed to be playing at the same time.
Hluboká had American Wesley Roemer and New Zealander James Boyce in its line-up in the first two games.
The problem probably was the playing of Vasil Zhupanin.
He was born in the Ukraine, but lives in the Czech Republic for awhile now, however, he still has the Ukraininan nationality.
In Sunday's game, Boyce didn't play.
In the opening game, both starting pitchers (both National Team-players) had a good outing.
Tomáš Duffek started for Eagles, struckout five batters in eight innings, but also gave up two runs.
Both were scored in the fourth inning.
Wesley Roemer then singled, moved to third base on a double by Martin Mužík and scored on a grounder by Martin Macháček.
Mužík (who plays in the National Team) then scored the next run on a double by Matěj Dvořák.
Newcomer Jan Novák dominated on the mound for Hluboká.
He struckout twelve batters and gave up only two basehits in six innings.
Eagles scored its lone run in the eighth off of reliever Wesley Roemer.
In the second game, winning pitcher Laurence Parsons struckout nine batters in six innings.
James Boyce then completed the game and threw the final three innings for Hluboká.
Both teams collected eight basehits.
...Marek Mirařík pitching for the Czechs during the 2014...
...European Championship in Ostrava (Czech Rep.)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the third game, Sokol Hluboká opened the score with two runs in the first inning and from there, it hold onto the lead.
Winning pitcher David Šťastný gave up five basehits in the five innings he pitched.
Two relievers then allowed two more hits to Eagles.
The home-team also collected seven basehits and saw Wesley Roemer scored three runs.
On Saturday, Kotlářka Praha played a double-header at home at Stadion Markéta in Prague against Tempo Praha.
The home-team lost both games, 14-1 and 4-1.
In the third game on Sunday at the site of Tempo Praha, the team recorded its first win of the season with a 6-2 score.
In the first game on Saturday, Tempo Praha collected eleven basehits, including homeruns by David Vohánka, Marek Minařík and American Jake Rabinowitz.
Minařík and Rabinowiz both scored three runs, as did Matěk Bužga.
As pitcher, National Team-player Minařík threw a complete 7-inning game, striking out six batters.
In the second game, Tempo Praha broke an 1-1 tie in the top of the seventh inning by scoring two runs.
Both teams collected only three basehits.
Kotlářka recorded all three hits off of starting pitcher Joey Wagman, who is an American-born player with the Israeli nationality and struckout eight batters in six innings.
Wagman is a player of the Israeli National Team, which has qualified for participation in the Olympic Games that will be held in July in Japan.
In the 2019 European Championship in Germany, Wagman won the Award for Pitcher with the Best ERA.
Tempo Praha produced only one basehit in its first six innings off of starter Lukáš Ercoli, who also dominated, like Wagman.
Ercoli's lone basehit was a homerun by Michal Zelenka in the fifth inning.
The home-team came alongside in its fifth on a sacrifice fly by Tomaš Bílek.
Tempo Praha re-took the lead in the seventh, then added an insurance run in the eighth via a homerun by Marek Minařík.
On Sunday, Kotlářka led from the second inning on and collected eight basehits.
Three of them were hit by Matěj Šůcha, who also scored twice.
Daniel Vavruša homered for the winning team.
Arrows Ostrava won its double-header on Saturday at home at Arrows Park in Ostrava, which in July will be the site for the European Champions Cup-tournament.
Arrows nipped Třebíč Nuclears 17-16 in the opener, then won 12-6 in the second game.
On Sunday, at the baseball-stadium in Třebíč, the home-team shutout Arrows, 4-0.
The first game had a strange line score.
Arrows led 5-0 after three innings and 8-4 after five.
But in the top of the sixth inning, Nuclears rallied for nine runs to take a 13-8 lead.
Arrows got two runs back in its sixth, but Nuclears took some more distance by scoring twice in the seventh.
Now trailing 15-11, Arrows staged a 5-run rally in the bottom of the seventh to take a 16-15 lead.
That was shortlived, as Nuclears came alongside in the eighth.
Arrows then did left the field victorious by scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Arrows was outhit 17-15 in the game, which saw nine homeruns.
Ryan Johnson was 5-for-5 for Nuclears, scored four runs and also batted in four.
Anthony Cipolla collected four basehits and batted in five runs.
The two Americans both homered twice.
Cipolla hit both his homeruns in the 9-run rally in the sixth inning.
Ivan Hamž also homered.
For Arrows, Matěj Menšík and Michael Vykoukal both had three basehits.
Vykoukal homered twice and batted in six runs, Menšík homered once and had four RBI's.
Martin Šmoldas also homered for the team from Ostrava.
In the second game, Arrows led 4-2 after three innings, then took more distance from the fourth inning on, which included a 4-run rally in the fifth.
Arrows collected 12 basehits, including four by veteran international player Petr Čech, who batted in three runs.
Michael Vykoukal homered again for Arrows, as did Anthony Cipolla and Ryan Johnson for Nuclears.
Winning pitcher Boris Bokaj struckout ten batters in seven innings and gave up only two basehits.
The third game on Sunday was much more low-scoring.
The home-playing Nuclears scored their runs in the second, fourth, sixth and eighth inning and collected ten basehits in the shutout.
Winning pitcher Justin Revels struckout nine batters and gave up three basehits.
The American threw six innings.
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Czech Extra League completes first round of new season
BLANSKO / BRNO / HLUBOKÁ NAD VLTABOU / OSTRAVA / PRAGUE / TŘEBÍČ (Czech Rep.) -
The regular baseball-season in the Czech Republic opened on Friday-evening (April 9) with three games.
On Saturday, seven games were played and on Sunday, five more games followed in the Extra League (Extraliga), which is the highest league in the Czech Republic.
All ten teams played three games.
The first European baseball-league that went underway this year was the 
