The penultimate week of league play in Croatian baseball sewed up the final two spots in the playoffs as Zagreb and Varaždin will travel to Olimpija Karlovac and Nada Split, hosts for the postseason’s first round. Zagreb broke a seven-game losing streak with a sweep of Medvednica, while Karlovac ended its regular season with a winning streak of seven.
Medvednica Bears at Zagreb (1-12, 11-21)
Zagreb took out its frustrations of the past two months with a pair of mercy rule victories over the cellar-dwelling Bears. Game One finished as a dominant 12-1 victory, while the hosts claimed a slugfest win over Medvednica on the Sunday, 21-11. Zagreb scored its most runs of any game this year in the game. It was the first sweep for the hosts since Week 1, when it travelled to Medvednica and took two. Zagreb also moved into third place with two games left, setting it up to avoid the juggernaut that is Karlovac. The Bears will miss the playoffs, as it did in 2020.
Vindija Varaždin at Olimpija Karlovac (2-8, 2-9)
Looking to hold on to the middle spot in the table, Varaždin travelled to face Olimpija, which had not lost since May 8. Vindija put up one of the best fights against Karlovac of any team this season, but ultimately came up short by a pair of similar scores. Olimpija will bring a seven-game winning streak into the playoffs, for which it will have home field advantage throughout. Varaždin, meanwhile, will need to win both of its final games to avoid a first-round rematch in Karlovac.
Looking Ahead
The regular season concludes in Week 10 with Nada looking to wrap up home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs and Zagreb and Varaždin both hoping to avoid Karlovac in their postseason openers.
By: Gabriel Fidler. No box scores available from Week 9.
Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | H | A | RF | RA | +/- | Str. |
| Olimpija Karlovac | 14 | 2 | .857 | 7-1 | 7-1 | 197 | 65 | 132** | W7 | |
| Nada SSM Split | 9 | 5 | .643 | 4 | 5-1 | 4-4 | 114 | 84 | 30 | W6 |
| Zagreb | 6 | 8 | .429 | 7 | 3-5 | 3-3 | 106 | 110 | -4** | W2 |
| Vindija Varaždin | 5 | 9 | .417 | 8 | 3-3 | 2-6 | 92 | 113 | -21 | L2 |
| Medvednica | 2 | 12 | .167 | 11 | 2-6 | 0-6 | 82 | 211 | -129 | L8 |
Number of stars corresponds to the number of games in which the score is unavailable.
Week 9 Results
June 5 Medvednica 1 – Zagreb 12
June 5 Varaždin 2 – Karlovac 8
June 6 Medvednica 11 – Zagreb 21
June 6 Varaždin 2 – Karlovac 9
Week 10 Schedule
June 12 Medvednica – Varaždin
June 12 Zagreb – Nada
June 13 Medvednica – Varaždin
June 13 Zagreb – Nada
Home team listed second.