EXL: Technika will be joined by Sokol Hluboká in Promotion League

Saturday games in Extraliga showed the definitive standings and the teams that will play TOP 6. The two teams who will have to battle for their spot in Extraliga for the following season are Technika and Sokol.

Arrows Ostrava – Sokol Hluboká 12-2 (8 inn.)

Before the game started players from South Czechia knew where they to lose the game, their TOP 6 chances were as good as gone. The game started promising when Petr Síla got on the base in the first inning. He then stole two bases and scored thanks to Martin Mužík. Arrows responded in the bottom of the second inning and it was an offensive explosion. Home team rotated the lineup and scored 8 runs. The last one came from Jakub Malík for whom it was 900th career hit. He achieved this by a solo homerun that send Villa Kermin out of the game.

On the other hand Alec Lemmon on the home mound had his classic solid performance, where he allowed 2 hits and no runs in 5 innings. However, Arrows situation got complicated when Lemmon got substituted by Josef Cihlář. He once again had issues and wasn’t able to get three outs. That’s why Boris Bokaj stepped in and he closed the game. After the win Arrows ensured their spot in TOP 6. On the other hand, Hluboká, who played in the semifinals in the previous season, will not get the chance to do the same again.

Draci Brno – Tempo Praha 1-6

Both teams started young pitchers and neither was doing badly. Ondřej Vank and Viktor Večerka both only had one earned run by the time they got taken out of the game. And so the winner was decided by the bullpens. While Jan Nebenführ allowed 4 runs in 3 innings, Lubomír Čuhel didn’t allow any hit in 3.2 IP. After a 6-1 win Tempo tied the series and will try to get the next week on their home field.

Eagles Praha – Třebíč Nuclears 19-4 (6 inn.)

The game between Nuclears and Eagles was surprisingly one-sided. Home players pressured their opponent from the first inning for the game to finish in the sixth on the mercy rule. Furthermore, this was for the second time in the season that Eagles managed to score 19 run. Třebíč made 6 error and showed they still have some practice ahead of them in this department, as they currently have the highest number of errors from any Extraliga team. This could come back and bite Nuclears in TOP 6. The series now moves to Třebíč, where the home team plans Army Day. Martin Červenka added his 7th homerun in this game and also 2 walks. His OBP is now .589 which now marks him as the best in the given statistics since wooden bats started to be used. And he still has 2 more games to reach .600 milestone, which is record held by Dondrei Hubbard.

Hroši Brno – Technika Brno 3-2 and 6-1

Hroši needed at least one win and Sokol loss to ensure their spot in TOP 6. They managed to do just that after they took both games. However, the first game didn’t come easy, when Technika started Luis Rengel. Hroši also didn’t make it easy on themselves with all the errors, they had 5 altogether. Fortunately for them, they had Jon Kennedy on the mound, who gave them 6 great innings, only allowing Technika 1 run. John Hussey then threw remaining three innings, allowing 1 run in the last inning. While Hroši only had 3 hits, it was enough to get 3 runs. And this was the kind of efficiency that gave them the important win.

The second game was much more dominant for the home team, as they scored 3 runs in the first inning. Unfortunately, Tyler Smith was hit by pitch and while he tried to carry on for a bit, he was taken out of the game and substituted by Kellen Croce. Home team had well pitching Lukáš Ercoli, who once again showed his good form when he only allowed 1 run in 6.1 IP. Bullpen then didn’t allow any runs and Hroši won the second game as well, snatching their spot in TOP 6.

EXL Standings

	W	L
Draci Brno	17	3
Tempo Praha	11	6
Eagles Praha	11	8
Třebíč Nuclears	10	10
Arrows Ostrava	9	9
Cardion Hroši Brno	10	10
Sokol Hluboká	7	13
Technika Brno	2	18