Being a hard nut to crack for Czech Republic, Team Austria proved to be not that far away from the european top teams.
However the third day ended with a 6:2 loss for the austrian team, it was the first game lasting nine innings for them. High scoring losses against the Netherlands and Germany made the Czech expect an easy going, which almost turned out to be a serious mistake.
Austria scored first, Martin Rabengruber’s run in the second inning was the first for Austria within the Tournament. Walter Strasser and his defense controlled the czech offense and demonstrated they are not at Barcelona to provide batting practice for the rest of the teams.
Czech Republic tied the game in the fourth inning, Oliver Kanthak recovered the lead top of the fifth but Jan Drabek re-tied for the czechs on the countermove.
Radek Prochazka took over on the mound for the Czech Republic and kept the austrian offense short, while Strasser became weak in the seventh inning and allowed the czechs four runs, before Clemens Chichocki took over, not allowing any more runs, but also Team Austria couldn’t score and the thriller ended with a 6:2 win for Czech Republic.
„This has been a really good match”, Austrias National-Team Manager Martin Langlois commented after the game. „Now we know you can play on this level when providing good offense and defense. When the team keeps on working we will see the first wins in the near future.”
By Joe Yun