U23 European Championship: Czechs beat France with a walk-off homerun

Czech national team had to wait till the third game at U23 European Championship for their first win. Even that didn’t come easy.

Czechs had to come from behind against France, after they were losing in the first inning. Lukáš Hlouch couldn’t hold his own against French batters who scored 5 runs in 4.1 IP against him. This was one of the reasons while France was ahead 0-5 after the top half of the fifth inning.

The bottom of the fifth inning saw Czech score for the first time. First Martin Zelenka batted in Jakub Grepl. Jan Pospíšil then added another RBI.

Nevertheless, Czechs still couldn’t get a solid contact and before the bottom of the seventh inning, they only had 3 hits. Fortunately for them, French reliever had problem with locating his pitches and Czechs loaded the bases with one out. Jakub Kubica then showed his nerves of steel and got a walk, lowering the deficit to 3-5. When Radim Novotný left the batting box with a striekout, Czechs were only one out from another loss. That’s when Marek Chlup stepped in and blasted a walk-off grand slam to end the game, giving his team an important win.

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