by Michal Hanus
During the last August weekend at three Prague baseball facilities started third edition of youth international baseball tournament BACK2SCHOOL. It’s long away when tournament served to local team as a preparation for upcoming baseball fall season.
This year arrived thirtyone t
eams from six countries to Tempo (U11), Troja (U13) and Krc (U15). These teams fought for big trophy in each category. Beside that, tournament is also part of INTERLEAGUE organized by CBA region NorthWest.
In U11 category at Tempo played 11 teams. Beside the top czech teams in category, also North Stars team from Hamburg and austrian Wr. Neustadt Diving Ducks presented themselve in tournament. Also Hroši Brno winner of the second edition accepted their invitation to tournament. Unusual number of teams caused hard tournament system. Teams was divided into two groups and then game for final standings were played. So no change to lost any game in group. The best performance in group presented teams Třebíč Nuclears and Tempo Titans Praha, who won their groups and got promoted to Sunday final game. Bronze medal game was fight between Arrows Ostrava and Hroši Brno. Winner trophy finally won players of Třebíč Nuclears, swept home team 10:3. Third finished Arrows Ostrava.
Individual awards:
MVP : Adam Skála (Třebíč Nuclears)
The Best Hitter: Matyáš Pjontek (Arrows Ostrava)
The Best Pitcher: Ondřej Vank (Tempa Titans)
The most interesting category U13 was played at Troje, home facility of SaBaT Praha. Tournament system was easier than in U11 and still second team from group had chance to win tournament. But there was again Trebíč Nuclears who won group without any troubles, won all play-off games including final game and brought second winning trophy home. In final game Nuclears destroyed Eagles Praha 13:2. Bronze medal won Sokol Hluboká, who brought really strong team to Prague. Fourth finished as the best foreign team Wr. Neustadt Diving Ducks.
Individual awards:
MVP : David Malena (Třebíč Nuclears)
The Best Hitter: Alexander Seidenberger (Wr. Neustadt Diving Ducks)
The Best Pitcher: Jakub Hajný (Eagles Praha)
The oldest tournament cateogry played their games at Eagles Park, the only one Prague baseball facility with two big diamonds. Eight really good and strong teams started their tournament like other categories already on Thursday evening. On Saturday afternoon semi final games were scheduled and on Sunday final standings game were scheduled. The best teams in tournament were Hroši Brno a german squad Stuttgart Reds. Both teams played really nice and thrilling final game, where the winner was known after nine played innings ! Hroši Brno in 9th inning scored to final score 8:5 and have back to back win in tournament in U15 category. Third finished Kotlářka Praha thanks to win 18:16 over home team Eagles Praha in a game, which reminded rollercoaster ride.
Individual awards:
MVP : Raymond Whitehead (Hroši Brno)
The Best Hitter: Jesse Oberst (Stuttgart Reds)
The Best Pitcher: Tomáš Zachoval (Hroši Brno)
Big thanks for a help we must send to Prague municipal, without their help we couldn’t finish this big tournament. Another say thank you is for Bago Sport company, which provided us prize for individual trophies, very popular sack packs Under Armour. We can’t forget say thank you for their support also to following Prague quarters Praha 4, Praha 12, Praha 7 a Praha-Troja. The last but not least big thank you is sending to all umpires, scorers and everybody at facilities who helped us successfully finish this tournament.
We are confident, that the main and initial reason for the tournament was fulfilled and for all participants it was a great start to fall season after long summer holidays. We hope, that we will see all participants also in BACK2SCHOOL 2017 edition !
All results including final standings you can find here .
