Czech Republic – Great Britain 5-12
Great Britain 303 100 320 12 13 2 Czech Republic 002 000 210 5 10 1
Great Britain remains in the hunt for the tournament win at the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Regensburg, Germany. The British team defeated the Czech Republic 12-5 on Saturday afternoon and earning at least one more game on Sunday against the loser of the evening matchup between Germany and Canada. The Czech team is eliminated from the WBC Qualifier after suffering their second loss.
Three runs apiece in the first, third and seventh inning laid the groundwork for the win in front of 1,806 people at the Armin-Wolf-Arena. Especially Bonn Capital BJ Roper-Hubbert celebrated a successful afternoon. The left fielder reached base in four of his five plate appearances, hit a homerun, scored three times and drove in three. Aeden McQueary-Ennis also collected three RBI. Jakub Hajtmar, Mike Cervenak and Jakub Malik combined for eight hits for the Czech team.
On the mound Miami Marlins minor leaguer Jacob Esch pitched six effective innings, allowing just two runs on five hits for the win. He struck out three and threw 50 of his 74 pitches for strikes. Paul Waterman, Josh Mason and Alex Smith conceded two more Czech runs, but had no big trouble to close out the victory.
On the opposing side Jan Blazek was charged with the loss. The right-hander from Prague couldn’t match his performance of the European Championship and gave up six hits, six runs (5 ER) and three walks in just 2 1/3 frames. Alex Sogard, Marek Minarik, Jan Homolka and Martin Schneider pitched in relief for the Czech Republic, but only Schneider was able to keep the British squad off the board.
The full game is available as video on demand at www.worldbaseballclassic.com
Photo by Walter Keller