EC: Slovakia lost to France after eleven innings

In their last game of 2021 European Championship, Slovakia had an unexpected opponent. In the game for 15th place, they faced France.

Slovakia started with Michal Puškár on the mound, who threw four innings against Sweden before. Unfortunately, his location was off against France and he had to be substituted with Martin Gieci in the second inning. At that moment, Slovakia was leading 2-1, as Mário Gottschall‘s long hit batted in Brunegraf and Biskorovájny.

While French leveled the score in the second inning, Slovak responded with a run from Rudohradský who reached the home plate after the hit from Matej Grendža-Donský. Unfortunately, their opponent was able to respond back in the following inning.

Martin Gieci kept French batters in check afterwards. More importantly he didn’t issue many walks. Unfortunately, the defense didn’t help him much in the eighth inning and the game was leveled again. Marek Bošanský was then sent to pitch and contain the damage. He ended the inning with nine pitches and Slovaks went on the offense. They had a huge opportunity to go ahead, when they loaded the bases with two outs. Unfortunately, Denis Pakši was then striked out.

Slovaks were close to a walk-off run in the ninth inning. But the lack of experience reared its ugly head and a baserunning mistake cost them a promising opportunity. The game went to extra innings.

French started the tenth inning with a run, but Slovaks were able to respond when Michal Noga got walked with bases loaded.

In the eleventh inning French scored another run after a questionable call from the empire. Slovaks had to come from behind again. Unfortunately, this time they were unable to score at least the leveling run and Slovakia lost their sixth game on the tournament. What’s more painful is, this was the fourth game in which Slovakia lost the lead.

Slovak team finished last at European Championship. They shouldn’t be ashamed, however, as they were able to play close games with many of their opponents and it is now clear that Slovak baseball has a talented core for the future.

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