by Michal Hanus
The games in the Czech Extraleague last weekend were, let’s put it that way: crazy. Besides the expected wins by the favorites, there were also a bunch of surprises. The ARROWS OSTRAVA played their seventh and eighth consecutive away game, due to the fact that the reconstruction of their field was not completed until early this week. OSTRAVA played in Brno against TECHNIKA BRNO. The first game was won by ARROWS 3-1 in a good defensive game and a two-run homerun by Griffin. After this regular score, some wild things happened. The second part of the doubleheader brought 35 runs. The ARROWS led 14-1 in the fourth and nobody bet on TECHNIKA. But a decrease in concentration and a breakdown in the pitching department and BRNO rallied to win by a score of 18-17. The split reinforced second place for OSTRAVA in the standings. .
Another crazy game was played in Prague, where the home team TEGOLA TITANS hosted SKOKANI OLOMOUC. Czech baseball insiders estimated two victories for SKOKANI. The first game started as expected with SKOKANI leading 8-0 in the seventh frame, but like in Brno, the home team came back and won 12-10. The TITANS used the momentum in the second match, led all the way and had a shutout until the ninth. The final score of was 5-1.
The last Saturday series was played in Blansko, where BLACK HILL hosted Prague based KRC ALTRON. KRC has a lot of players on the injury list, so it was the chance was there for BLANSKO for their first winning game in the 2008 Extraleague. The first game was a close one, finishing with a 5-4 victory for KRC ALTRON 5-4. But in the follow up BLACK HILL took advantage, scoring fast and capturing their first victory of the season with a final score of 5-3.
The only Sunday game took place in Brno, which brought the first loss for the champions AVG DRACI, in a local derby against MZLU EXPRESS. EXPRESS played very good baseball and held DRACI without a chance to score until the seventh inning. There DRACI loaded the bases and Budsky cleared them with a grand slam to bring them back to 4-5. However, MZLU hold on to the advantage and denied another rally.
The Czech Extraleague will continue on Wednesday evening with three games. In Blansko at 7pm BLAK HILL will host MZLU EXPRESS, in Brno at 7pm AVG DRACI faces TECHNIKA and finally at 5:30pm ARROWS OSTRAVA will square off against SKOKANI OLOMOUC in their renovated field in Ostrava Poruba. The midweek schedule closes on Thursday night in Prague, where home team KRC ALTRON will host TEGOLA TITANS in front of TV cameras of national sport channel CT4.
Statistic leaders – Batting Average (more than 14 AB)
1. Ryan Berg (MZLU) 0.600 2. Roger Dale Brewer (Skokani) 0.467 3. Basilio Barrios (Krc) 0.419 4. Pavel Budsky (Draci) 0.400 5. Marek Blajer (Krc) 0.390 6. Martin Schneider (Draci) 0.389 7. Tomas Regec (Blansko) 0.375 7. Zdenek Kocman (Blansko) 0.375 7. Ales Navratil (Arrows) 0.375 10. Radek Nemec (Skokani) 0.364