by Michal Hanus
Another top baseball club from Brno is starting into the final preparation period. The Czech Baseball Extraleague will start on Easter weekend, so Express will use the two weekends before opening day to play in two pre-season tournaments. They will start this weekend at the Cerna Hora Spring Cup, which is organized by Technika Brno. MZLU will meet on Saturday with Technika at 10am, Kotlarka Praha at 12:45 and Angels Trnava from Slovakia on Sunday at 12:45. On the first weekend in April, Express will participate in the Warm Up Cup, which is organized by Skokani Olomouc, to play against the SUPERFUND Wanderers from Vienna, Austria and Skokani Olomouc in a round robin and a classification game.
Express is preparing for the 2009 season with the following changes on their roster. Ryan Berg left the team and reinforces their neighbor Technika Brno. Pavel Jozek is returning to the club, where he began his baseball career – Trebic Nuclears, but remains available for MZLU as a guest player. Express looked to Slovakia for improvements of their squad for the upcoming season. Express will bolster the club with two members of the Slovakian National Team, Tomas Biskorovajny and Simon Prochazka, in addition to another Slovakian prospect Peter Haspra. The fourth new face for 2009 is Vojtech Janicek from Draci Brno.
MZLU Express Brno opens the new season on Saturday April 11th with doubleheader against Technika Brno, starting the pursuit of 3rd place in the final standings of the Extraleague.