EXL: Saturday favored home teams
Weather once again changed Extraliga program on Saturday. Due to this we got to see one game less. Duel between Třebíč even had to be stopped for two hours.
Arrows Ostrava – Draci Brno 6-4
Filip Moštěk blasted the first pitch from Ondřej Satoria out of the park and same as on Friday, Draci took an early lead. While home team tied in the second inning, Draci scored three more runs in the third inning, after a homerun from Beicker Mendoza. At that point Ostrava fans had to get worried, whether the game will follow the same pattern as the one before. In the end this didn’t happen, as Satoria, who became 13th pitcher in Extraliga history to reach 600 strikeouts, didn’t allow more runs.
Ostrava, on the other hand, tied the game in the seventh inning. The decisive runs came in the eighth inning, when Draci had Václav Tauš on the mound. Arrows got 2 runners on bases, for Matyáš Kozel‘s third hit of the game to send them home. Boris Bokaj didn’t let any runners on bases and he helped his team to the win. Furthermore, he earned his 931st strikeout in Extraliga, tying for the second spot with Leoš Kubát.
The tied series now moves to Brno, where the winner will be decided on Saturday.
Tempo Praha – Technika Brno 10-0 (F/7)
Fans had to wait almost 4 hours for the game at Tempo to start. Due to rain and late start only one of the two planned games was played in the end. Even that didn’t last long, as Tempo beat their opponent in seven innings.
Technika didn’t get a good start as Tempo scored 6 runs in the first two innings against Parker Thode. Technika sent Svatoslava Kraut on the mound, who kept one inning scoreless, but in the fourth he allowed 3 runs. Tempo added 10th run against Matěj Brabec in the 5th inning.
Since then the only question was whether the visitors get to score at least a run to avoid the mercy rule. However, neither Marek Minařík nor Lubomír Čuhel allowed any runs.
Tempo won 10-0, outhitting their opponent 14-5. Martin Červenka finished the game with 4 H, 4 R, and 4 RBI. For Technika it was Jakub Mánek who had 3 out of his team’s 5 hits. Series will continue with 2 more games on Sunday.
Třebíč Nuclears – Sokol Hluboká 11-4 and 5-0
Only doubleheader at Vysočina was complete, despite the first game being interrupted for 2 hours. The first game had a bit of a wild start, when both teams tried to outrun and outerror one another. That’s why the score settled at 6-4 for the home team.
Nuclears changed their pitcher and sent in Lukáš Smejkal, who came in for Lukáš Hlouch. Smejkal didn’t allow any runs scored for the remaining of the game. His teammates were faring batter in the offense and in the end ended up with 11 runs scored. Three of them thanks to Pavel Jozek who also has 3 hits. Miroslav Křivánek outhit him by 1, finishing with 4 hits. Nuclears entered the series with a win.
The second game was much calmer, and we had to wait till the third inning to see the first run scored. There Miroslav Křivánek‘s double scored in 2 runs. Nuclears, helped by errors, scored three more runs in the fifth inning, which were the last runs of the game. Ryan Johnson on their mound only allowed 5 hits and striked out 9 batters. Jake Rabinowitz followed the suite in the last 2 innings, not allowing any runs to be scored, but he also added 3 hits and 1 walk in the offense.
Třebíč won the second game of the series, overtaking Hluboká in Extraliga table. They will get the chance to sweep the series on Sunday.
