European Championship: Slovakia beat Finland and will play in the qualification finals

An important game against Finland awaited Slovakia on Thursday. Slovaks knew that if they were to win, they would play in the qualification finals against Ireland. And they did everything to make it happen.

Slovakia was led as the away team, even though the game was played at the home field of many Slovak players, in Bratislava with plenty of Slovak fans in attendance. If some of the fans came to the field in Podunajské Biskupice (Bratislava suburbs – author note) late, they missed four Slovak runs. The runs came thanks to RBI hits from Martin Brunegraf, Alexander Václavík and Denis Pakši. In the second inning, Slovaks increased their lead with the fifth run and the game started to look like the runs would start to mount up.

However, Slovak bats eased up in next innings, as the players were unable to pressure Tim Liiri. Fortunately for Slovakia, the team had Michal Puškár on the mound, who only allowed one run in three innings. He was then substituted by Jaroslav Kosna and Puškár got some rest for the Saturday game.

Slovak exploded offensively in the sixth inning, when they batted around and added seven runs. Slovak coaches made several changes to the lineup and sent in players with less experience. Jaroslav Kosna remained on the mound and he held his team’s lead.

Slovakia advanced to the finals, which will be played on Saturday. Before the important game, they will face Ireland to determine who will finish first in the group stage. It can be expected that neither of the teams will want to play in full strength, giving opportunity to the wider roster.

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