First week finished in the First League
Second best Czech baseball league finished its Opening weekend. Unlike in the Extraliga Opening Weekend all of the games were played as scheduled.
Olympia Blansko – Pelikans Bučovice 15-2 (7 inn.) and 11-1 (7 inn.)
None of the games of the former Extraliga team lasted full nine innings. Blansko managed to deal with their opponent without much trouble, when they built up their lead early on. In the first game against Bučovice the away team had a lot of trouble in the defense, as they produced 7 errors.
Skokani Olomouc – Blesk Jablonec 6-3 and 4-14 (7. inn.)
A duel between two top favorites of this season brought interesting games. In the end each team took one win. In the first game Skokani started Marko Vykoukal who didn’t allow any runs in six innings he threw, while striking out 11 batters. Jakub Voják had 4 RBI from 6 Skokani runs, who in the end took 6-3 win.
In the second game even the Voják’s homerun wasn’t enough to give Skokani the win. Blesk had two really good innings, where they scored 6 runs in each of them. For the first time we could also see their new player on the mound in Angel Vilchez, who threw the seventh inning in a huge style, when he only need 11 pitches for 3 strikeouts.
SaBaT Praha – Hippos Brno 4-7 and 6-4
Two very interesting games were on display in Prague district Troja, where SaBaT hosted Hippos. We could see former national team players Michal and Jakub Ondráček as well as Slovak national player Michal Puškár. However, it was neither of them who led a great Hippos comeback in the ninth inning of the first game. Second half of the lineup managed to load the bases against, up till that moment, excellent Kryštof Dupal. Jakub Čudovský base clearing triple gave Hippos the lead afterwards. They were able to hold it in the bottom half of the inning and got themselves the first win of the season. The performance of home Eduard Nosek is also worth mentioning as he only missed homerun to reach the Cycle.
In the second game it was home SaBaT that was ahead for the most of the game as they were leading 6-1 after six innings. However, Hippos managed to get three runs back and put their opponent under pressure. This time, however, home pitchers managed to close the game and so both teams took one win each.
Kotlářka Praha – Klasik Frýdek-Místek 20-8 (7 inn.) and 11-7
If you came to stadium Na Markétě at the beginning of the first game, you were able to see an offensive baseball. Kotlářka scored 12 runs in first three innings. Klasik managed to mount a comeback, but in the end, they only got 8 runs from their chances. The last runs of the game came in the sixth inning after Jan Komorous‘ two run homerun.
Prague team had a quick start in the second game as well, when they took 9-0 lead after three innings. Visitors replied with 7 runs by the end of the game, which made the duel a bit more dramatic, however, Kotlářka responded and in the end won the game 11-7.
First League Standings
| W | L | % | GB | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympia Blansko | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | – | 26 : 3 |
| Kotlářka Praha | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | – | 31 : 15 |
| Blesk Jablonec | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 17 : 10 |
| Hippos Brno | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 11 : 10 |
| SaBaT Praha | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 10 : 11 |
| Skokani Olomouc | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 10 : 17 |
| Klasik Frýdek-Místek | 0 | 2 | .000 | 2 | 15 : 31 |
| Pelikans Bučovice | 0 | 2 | .000 | 2 | 3 : 26 |
