EXL: Tempo and Draci entered the semifinals better than their opponents

Czech Extraliga playoff started with two games on Friday. Both games were close and they offered nice baseball moments.

Besides Tempo, we could see a large number of Hroši fans as well, who were curious about the first ever playoff game of their team. However, Hroši had a rough start, as Tempos scored 3 runs against John Hussey in the first inning. The things didn’t continue well for them in the fourth inning where Hussey asked for a substitution. Based on his gesticulation it could be due to throwing hand injury.

Ondřej Vank threw 4 scoreless innings for Tempo. However, the fifth inning saw the home team celebrate the tying run. It was only a challenge that showed Tyler Smith left the third based prematurely and he was eventually ruled out. This turned out to be decisive moment. Visitors sent Marek Minařík on the mound who didn’t allow any runs for the reminded of the game. Hroši thus couldn’t win despite excellent performance from Boris Večerka, who threw 6 scoreless innings with 7 SO.

Tempo took the lead in the series. The second game will be played at 14:00 CEST, once again at Hroši.

The second semifinal series also saw the first run in the first inning after Eugen Helder sent Arnošt Dubový home. Only moments before scoring the first run, Dubový also hit his 600th Extraliga hit. However, Eagles were able to press Draci starter Filip Čapka and they reached bases. Unfortunately for them, turning runners into runs wasn’t going well for them as they were unable to score any runs.

This came back to bite Prague team in the bottom of the fourth inning, where Draci pressed Tomáš Duffek. He wasn’t helped by his defense and home team increased their lead to 2-0.

But Eagles got back at Draci in the fifth inning. They got runners on bases followed by hit from Petr Zýma who tied the game.

The score remained unchanged until the bottom of the seventh inning. The best batter of the game, Eugen Helder, then hit a double and gave Draci the lead once again. Few moments later Jakub Hajtmar’s triple scored in the fifth run and after a defensive error, he was able to reach the home base as well. Draci offense was only stopped by a pitching change, when Andrew Grieder came in for Duffek.

Draci also made a substitution on the mound, as Martin Schneider came in for Čapka. Schneider showed his quality and pitched three scoreless innings. Draci won the first game of the series and will try to repeat their performance on Saturday.

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