First League: Blesk ensured the spot in Promotion League. Frýdek-Místek out of the hunt
First round of the second highest baseball leagues cleared out who will be playing in Promotion League. We also found out who is the first club who won’t get a chance to play in it.
Olympia Blansko – Kotlářka Praha 3-7 and 13-0 (7 inn.)
Both teams competed against one another in Extraliga in the previous season, while now they battle in the First League. Strawberry Field saw a doubleheader being played in Blansko on Saturday and each team took a win. Home team made 5 errors in the first game and they were behind from the get go. Vít Hrdlička on Kotlářka mound only allowed them one run in six innings he pitched and was an important factor in his team’s win. In the second game, however, it was Blansko who were the better team and took the win without much of an issue. Jan Svoboda was pitching well for them, only allowing 2 hits and no run to Kotlářka. Štěpán Havlíček and Vojtěch Pomazal were excellent in the offense when they each had 4 hits. Havlíček and Michal Klimeš had 9 out of 13 RBIs. Both teams now share the second place in the table and are close to take a spot in the Promotion League.
Blesk Jablonec – SaBaT Praha 5-4 and 16-0 (5 inn.)
Games of SaBaT Praha could be divided into two group. One where Kryštof Dupal was on the mound and the other where he wasn’t. On the days, where the thirty year old pitcher is on the mound, SaBaT is able to compete with anyone, which also showed in the first game of the series. Dupal threw the entire game against Jablonec, allowing 5 runs (3 earned). The second game was then dominated by Jablonec’s Angel Vilchez, who didn’t allow any runs in 5 innings and he also striked out 10 batters. It was for the second time in the season that Vilchez achieved double digit strikeouts in the game. The home pitchers allowed 16 runs, even though 10 of them were unearned. For this reason the game finished on mercy rule after 5 innings. With the wins Jablonec ensured their position in the Promotion League. On the other hand, SaBaT has to win in the remaining four games to get a chance to be promoted to Extraliga.
Klasik Frýdek-Místek – Pelikans Bučovice 1-2 and 16-2 (7 inn.)
Two of the last team in the table played each other in Northern Moravia over the weekend. It was the first one which turned out to be more interesting, as it was dominated by pitchers. It was especially Ondřej Králík who had his best game of the season when he threw a complete game. He only allowed 4 hits and striked out 7 batters in 9 innings. Kamil Pavelka who pitched against him allowed 6 hits in 6 innings. Adrián Mück then wrapped up the game, allowing 1 hits and striking out 3 batters. It were the errors that decided the winner in the end. While visitors made more of them, home errors came in closer situations as Bučovice managed to score two runs after them, while home team only managed to score one. In the end, pitchers ended up with 0 earned runs which is something we don’t see too often.
What home team failed to do in the first game they made up for in the second. This time they took advantage of Bučovice’s 7 errors and in the end they scored 16 runs. It was also for the first time Klasik scored double digit runs this season. Michal Prokeš had 5 RBI himself. Šimon Urban on Klasik’s mound only allowed 5 hits and had 0 earned runs. Klasik pitchers had ERA 0.00 by the end of the game. However, Frýdek-Místek only has two wins from ten games they played and it is now certain they won’t get to play in the Promotion League this year.
Skokani Olomouc – Hippos Brno 4-3 and 8-9
First League Standings
| W | L | % | GB | BA | OBP | ERA | K | FA | Err | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blesk Jablonec | 9 | 1 | .900 | - | .349 | 0.478 | 4.44 | 76 | .962 | 12 | 130 : 44 |
| Olympia Blansko | 7 | 3 | .700 | 2 | .301 | 0.392 | 3.75 | 68 | .944 | 20 | 77 : 49 |
| Kotlářka Praha | 7 | 3 | .700 | 2 | .286 | 0.379 | 6.17 | 78 | .946 | 20 | 93 : 67 |
| Skokani Olomouc | 6 | 4 | .600 | 3 | .28 | 0.366 | 4.66 | 70 | .937 | 24 | 62 : 63 |
| Hippos Brno | 3 | 7 | .300 | 6 | .26 | 0.370 | 4.39 | 54 | .922 | 29 | 59 : 78 |
| SaBaT Praha | 3 | 7 | .300 | 6 | .245 | 0.358 | 7.75 | 68 | .905 | 33 | 70 : 109 |
| Pelikans Bučovice | 3 | 7 | .300 | 6 | .247 | 0.360 | 11.92 | 36 | .892 | 34 | 68 : 127 |
| Klasik Frýdek-Místek | 2 | 8 | .200 | 7 | .228 | 0.300 | 5.73 | 49 | .912 | 30 | 55 : 77 |
