European Championship U18: Czechs beat Austria and will play for fifth place

Czechs played the last game in the European Championship group stage against Austria. If they wanted to be certain they will remain in the competition next year, they needed to win.

David Winkler’s team had a good start. Captain Milan Prokop scored in the first inning and inning later Ondřej Filip added another run, increasing Czech lead to 2-0. However, Austria didn’t choke and they equaled in the third inning. Czech starter Boris Večerka hit the first batter, followed by defensive error, resulting into a scored run and runner at the third base. Czech coaches substituted Večerka for Lukáš Smejkal. Smejkal was welcomed in the game with Julian Faulhaber’s RBI hit. Czech pitcher reacted with two strikeouts, ending the inning.

In the bottom half of the inning Czechs got a runner in the scoring position, but they couldn’t get another run. Austria was energized with their performance from the inning before and thanks to Eoghan McGarry’s triple they scored two more runs taking the lead. Thankfully, Czechs responded with loading the bases, that were then cleared with Matěj Vlach‘s triple.

Unfortunately, Tadeáš Zavadil then allowed three runners on bases in the next inning and Nicolas O’Rourke had to save the situation. McGarry saw the opportunity and with a hit, he was able to score in two runs giving Austria the lead. It didn’t last long, however, as Milan Prokop opened the bottom half of the inning with a triple and then scored a run on a wild pitch. His teammates followed the suit loading the bases with no outs. In the end, Czechs finished the inning with five scored runs.

Nicolas O’Rourke needed to hold Austrian bats in check and he did just that, after he didn’t allow any runners on bases in the last two innings. Czechs earned an important win and will fight for the fifth place at the Championship at 16:00 against third team from Group A.

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