by Peter Mernyei, www.baseball.hu
The Hungarian teams had a very busy weekend in the Interleague. The Brick Factory won two games in Levice, and they stick to the leaders, Slovan-Apollo, of the group, while the Jánossomorja Rascals are trying not to lose their last chance of reaching the Final Four. The Szentendre Sleepwalkers could only in one game against Trnava, while the Nagykanizsa team had lost two more games, and also the mathematical chance of playing into the fall.
The Brick Factory, travelled without their ace, Zsolt Zalabai to Levice. After the first game it seemed like they would easily sweep the home team. Last year’s MVP Péter Lupták was phenomenal at the plate going 4/6, with 4 runs scored, 1 RBI, and two doubles. The team crossed the homeplate 20 times in the first 3 innings. An interesting fact that 14 batters got to the plate in the 3rd inning.
The coach in away games, Roberto Morua knew that the first games score doesn’t give any indication about the outcome of the second game.
“They are a younger team, they just get to know each other. After the first three innings we had a pretty nice lead, so we could also give our younger players some playing time. The tactics of Levice is that they always leave their better pitcher to the second game.”
That is just what happened, Oliver Pentek gave some tough time to the Hungarian Champion. The home team, lead throughout the game by 2 runs, up until the very last inning…
Down by one run(2-1) Óbuda, started off the inning with a ground out, hit by János Csornai, followed by Péter Lupták’s walk. So the tying run was on base. Than Pentek hit Csaba Góor, and two runners were already on base. While Roberto Morua was at the plate, Luptak and Góor made a double steal. Than Roberto hit a walk off double, the final score 3-2!
The players/coach, Morua thought they should have won the game easier.
“It was a nice game. When we had runners on base, all our liners were caught, rather than hitting the gap. Which made it even harder, is that in the second game Levice had a lot of chances to make their lead bigger.”
Did they feel the absence of Zsolt Zalabai?
“Especially in hitting, when we have him on the line up. The opposing pitchers cannot take a breath so they get tired earlier in the game. Pitching wise, we had Moki (Xiaobo Xiong) and Jorge Fernandez, they were both quite good today.”
The other Hungarian big team, the Sleepwalkers, wanted to do the same as Óbuda did. But they played against the stronger Trnava team. The Angels showed that they can still hit after the no hitter, and took the first game home, and if not for Miklós Földessy it could have easily been two wins for the visiting team.
Let’s see how the coaches saw the game.
The visiting team’s American coach Vern Hasty, spoke rather about the first game, which they won 15-5.
“It wasn’t as easy as the score might suggest. The game was on the line all along, if it wasn’t for our great defense, it could have ended otherwise. We could touch up on their reliever Péter Gyurcsek and with some big hits we turned the game in our favor.”
The newly named coach of Trnava, lost his first game on the bench in the second game.
“The Slovakian winter was a little rough after the US summer, but so far everything is really nice over here, the people are nice, not just the Slovakians also the Hungarians. I stay until October, I hope we will have a very successful time together.”
On the other side, according to Masaharu Inoue, the Sleepwalkers’ coach, the team needs a lot more practice in order to get better.
“In order to play faster, get stronger and play more accurate, we will have to practice a lot more. Now we have problems both in the infield and the outfield, but we try to work on that.”
We could see a freshman’s first game against Trnava, Tamás Szabó had his first game in the Interleague this weekend. Masa can only pronounce “Tomi” so far, but he was also very satisfied with what he has seen of the 16 year old pitcher.
“Tomi could become a very good pitcher, he is very calm on the mound and also in the batter’s box. He had a very nice debut today.”
“I didn’t expect 3 scoreless innings of myself to be honest. But I am a bit disappointed because of what I did in the batter’s box.” –told us Szabó, who didn’t get too cocky because of his performance and as always cleaned the field after the game.
In the next round the Sleepwalkers travel to Jánossomorja, where the meet the pumped up Rascals.
The Rascals played the Fighting Flies Bratislava and first time this year they played their own game, beating the Flies 12-2 and 14-12.
The still winless Neckermann Kanizsa Ants, lost two games at home against the Slovan Spiders. It is hard to win without hitting…
Interleague, 4th round
1BKK Seals Kosice-Levice – Óbuda Brick Factory 11-25, 2-3
Szentendre Sleepwalkers – TJ STU Angels Trnava 5-15, 6-3
Neckermann Kanizsa Ants – Slovan Spiders 2-12, 1-7
Fighting Flies Bratislava – Jánossomorja Rascals 12-2, 14-12
STANDINGS
1.Slovan Spiders 4-0
2. BK Apollo Bratislava 5-1
3. Óbuda Brick Factory 5-1
4. TJ STU Angels Trnava 4-2
5. Szentendre Sleepwalkers 4-2
6. Jánossomorja Rascals 3-5
7. Fighting Flies Bratislava 2-4
8. 1BKK Seals Kosice-Levice 1-5
9. Neckermann Kanizsa Ants 0-6
Coming up, 5th round (May 2)
Jánossomorja Rascals – Szentendre Sleepwalkers
Óbuda Brick Factory – Neckermann Kanizsa Ants
BK Apollo Bratislava – Slovan Spiders
TJ STU Angels Trnava – Fighting Flies Bratislava