EXL: Czech Series 2021 starts today
Draci Brno will face Arrows Ostrava in the Czech Series for the eight time in the history. The series without a favorite promises interesting baseball once again.
Brno team will start at home, giving them the advantage for the beginning of the series. Teams faced each other six times during the season each leaving with 3 wins. Two times the games finished with a run difference and once with two run difference. These games show that we can expect a close and exciting brand of baseball.
Draci can rely on Venezuelan Pabel Manzanero, whose performance can peak interest of professional overseas teams. In the games between Arrows and Draci, he leads either team in batting average with .538, he is the only batter of either of the teams with batting average over .500. Close behind, with BA .429, is Arnošt Dubový who has an excellent season. Another foreigner Eugene Helder has experience from final series, as he was one of the main players who helped Bologna to Italian Series A championship win.
As it became a custom, Draci also have solid pitching, with two starters Radim Chroust and Omar Conoropo. The man who can tip the scales, however, is young David Mergans who threw 10.2 innings against Arrows this year, only allowing 2 runs. He also had 9 SO and only 2 BB.
Arrows are not as strong on the mound this year and they will focus on the impressive batting. If the final series continues beyond this weekend, they will have Alec Lemmon back, who plays well enough to give Arrows chance to win two games. If Draci managed to get Ostrava starters from the mound early, however, they will have better chances to take lead against Arrows bullpen.
On the other hand, Arrows batting excels this season. The team has a huge amount of talent in this department, as we could see throughout the year. Jakub Malík found his swing in recent weeks, despite not having the best numbers against Draci this season, with only 3 hits in six games. Arrows fans will hope he will bring his newfound form to Czech Series. Arrows will also have Petr Čech available, who have a several important hits for Draci in previous Czech Series.
With quality of both teams it is difficult to predict who will become this year’s champion. Draci might have slightly better chances, as they want to add another title to their impressive collection. However, each series starts at 0-0 and any little thing can decide the winner this year.
