by Nada SSM Split
Last weekend in Bratislava the Interleague 2010 – Final Four was played, after a regular season in which 16 teams participated from five countries (Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia), which together have over 30 million inhabitants. For the final tournament were qualified: Olimpija Karlovac, Slovan Bratislava, Bratislava Apollo and Nada SSM Split.
On Saturday the semi-final matches were played:
Nada SSM Split – Slovan Bratislava 6-0
A superb performance of Matko Dabo that dominated 9 innings (13 K and 4 BB) at the position of pitcher, allowing no more than 4 hits to Slovan team, while the players of Split have a striking day with 11 hits, of which we need to emphasize three hits of Berecka Filip and Ernesto Pereira. The defense led by Jurjević Tonći performed without errors. A well-deserved victory in which Nada SSM Split had shown calmness and seriousness.
Apollo Bratislava – Olimpija Karlovac 7-1
The match in which we expect more from Olimpija Karlovac, watching this match we had the impression that the Karlovac totally “confused” and was easy prey for a host. Very poor performance of Olimpija, but we should not diminish the quality of Apollo and their pitcher Zatka Martin, who had 12 Ks and stopped Karlovac on one run.
In Sunday’s first match the third place game was played:
Slovan Bratislava – Olimpija Karlovac 13-17
Both teams entered this match with average pitchers so that the result could even be higher. In all this Karlovac get hits in right time and deservedly finished in third of the Interleague.
And the long-awaited final of Interleague
Apollo Bratislava – Nada SSM Split 1-3
The day before saw that the crew of Apollo a lot more difficult opponent than team Slovan, a solid pitcher and a solid defense. But in the second inning after “walking” of Jadran Dadic and the hit of Vukosav Ivo, at the plate came Ante Ćurković who hits a three-run homerun (his first homerun of his career) which later turned out to be three crucial runs. Nada SSM Split later had two opportunities to score runs, but both times the Slovakians prevented it with great defense. For Nada SSM Ernesto Pereira stopped the Slovakian offense with 10 strikeouts and allowed only 4 hits.
A thank you has to go out to the superb organizers in Bratislava for and the great Slovakian people. In addition to winning the cup, players of Nada SSM Split also won individual awards: Ernesto Pereira as most valuable player (MVP) and Berecka Filip as best hitter.