by Michal Hanus
Czech Baseball Extraleague had Opening Day on Friday in MBS Brno where 2007 champion AVG DRACI BRNO hosted their municipal rival TECHNIKA BRNO. DRACI shutout TECHNIKA 4-0 and during the whole game pitchers dominated above the batters. DRACI scored twice in the third inning. Toman scored after a hit of Hrusovsky, who ran for the second run after an error of TECHNIKA’s catcher Stritecky. No other scores came through during the domination of both starting pitchers Schneider (DRACI) and Koci (TECHNIKA). In the sixth inning Minarik (DRACI) substituted Schneider on the mound. TECHNIKA replaced Koci in the seventh inning by Stribrcky, who gave up the third DRACI run and was relieved by Vancura and Prochazka. The second game between the two rivals will be played on Thursday April 17th and will be broadcasted for a Czech TV station.
Vice champions MZLU EXPRESS BRNO played against BLACK HILL BLANSKO. The first game played in Brno brought a hitting competition, which won EXPRESS by a 11-9 score. Although BLACK HILL led 9-8 after five innings. BLANSKO started with rookie Petr Tomas, who was replaced in the fourth by Jaroslav Nemec. MZLU began with Vojtech Jelinek on the mound and Marian Gajdos closed out the match.
The second game played in Blansko brought dominance of EXPRESS BRNO and they crushed BLACK HILL 7-1. Kocman pitched six innings for BLACK HILL and left the game with the score at 1-3. The young talented lefthander Blazek came in and allowed two walks and a triple, which put the final EXPRESS runs on the board. Prospect Jan Tomek started for BRNO. Reliever Pavel Jozek received the win.
The next series between SKOKANI OLOMOUC and ARROWS OSTRAVA brought very exciting and close games. The first game was won by SKOKANI in an extra tenth inning when they scored on ball four of ARROWS pitcher Votava who pitched a complete game. SKOKANI started with Vojtech Holicky. Middle reliever and newcomer for the 2008 season, Dale Brewer, didn’t get the chance to score for the ARROWS and closer Lukas Vesely secured the 3-2 win.
The second game started the man who closed out the first, Lukas Vesely, and the ARROWS countered with Jiri Gal. For Gal it was the first complete game in his Extraleague career. Southpaw Vesely was replaced on the mound after a successful triple of Kubovcik. Another SKOKANI reinforcement, Cole Reynolds, finished the game. The ARROWS won the second game and they are looking forward to the arrival of their players from the Philippines. SKOKANI showed that they are a club, which has bigger ambitions then in recent years, and the baseball community has to take SKOKANI in consideration in the fight for a playoff spot.
The last series was between the two Prague rivals KRC ALTRON and TEGOLA TITANS. KRC swept TEGOLA 6-1 and 6-4. In the first game the TITANS didn’t find a formula against the brilliant pitching combination of Husek (starter, 6 IP) and Vybora (reliever, 3 IP). The first game was already over after two innings after five runs by ALTRON had build up a 6-0 lead. The only run of TEGOLA registered starting pitcher Eduard Mraz after sac hit of Mika. Young TITANS prospect Tomas Steiner pitched excellent over the last four innings.
The second game featured Jonak (KRC ALTRON) and Jozefus (TITANS) on the mound. Jonak held the TITANS batters six innings off the board. In difference to Jozefus, who hadn’t a good start into the season. He left the mound after three hit batters, one strikeouts and a walk with the score 4-0 for KRC ALTRON. His replacement Kus, who played for a KRC last season, allowed only two runs in six innings. The TITANS threatened to tie the game in the ninth against closer Drabek and scored four runs, which brought starter Jonak back on the mound after eight innings and two outs to secure his own win. Cervenka finished the contest for TEGOLA.