by Michal Hanus
The Czech Baseball Extraleague will start on Sunday April 11th, so the preseason tournaments in the Czech Republic are under way. Two tournaments dedicated for Extraleague teams are scheduled this weekend.
Already the 12th annual Eltodo Cup (1st Spring Homerun) organized by Eagles Praha will start already on Thursday and will last till Sunday. The ten participating teams are divided into to two pools. Group A, visually stronger, consists of Angels Trnava from Slovakia, Arrows Ostrava, Eagles Praha, Kotlarka Praha and Tempo Titans Praha – all Extraleague teams except Tempo Titans which were relegated last fall. In group B will play Blesk Jablonec, Czech national U16 team, Lokomotiva Louny, Old Boys and Trebic Nuclears – all teams are playing in Ceskomoravska Baseball League (one level below Extraleague). All information and schedule of games can be found at the Eagles Praha website.
Another preseason tournament, the 4th Warm Up Cup is organized by Skokani Olomouc. This tournament will start on Friday and will continue through the whole weekend. Participants are Skokani Olomouc I, Skokani Olomouc II, Hrosi Brno, SUPERFUND Wanderers Vienna (Austria), Spiders Bratislava (Slovakia) and the national team of Poland. The winner of the last year’s event, Arrows Ostrava, will not travel to Olomouc, because they will participate at Eltodo Cup. All necessary information about the Warm Up Cup as well as about previous editions can be found at the Skokani Olomouc website.