EC: Czechs advance to quarterfinals after a decisive win against Greece
The second game and the second win. Czechs have a smooth sailing through European Championship so far as they locked in quarterfinals. Furthermore, their opponents are yet to score against them.
Pavel Chadim’s team caused headache to Jonathan Kountis on Greece mound, who needed 40 pitches to close the first inning. Luckily for him Czechs were only 1-0 ahead after a hit from Matěj Menšík. Eric Sogard then increased their lead to 2-0 in the third inning.
However, the bottom half of the fourth inning bear fruit for the Czech national team, who scored 9 runs and basically decided the game. Willie Escala blasted a three run homerun in the inning. Fans could get even more excited two innings later, when Martin Mužík and Escala added 3 more runs and gave Czechs 14-0 lead.
Ondřej Satoria on Czech mound didn’t allow much to Greeks as they only got 2 hits off of him. Jan Tomek, who came after him, also kept the opposition scoreless. Czechs won 14-0 and currently hold 23-0 score after two games.
„These two games were very important for the quarterfinals. We want to beat Spain tomorrow and advance from the first place to be the home team,“ said outfielder Arnošt Dubový after the game. „Pitchers, along with the defense had incredible tournament so far. Of course, the opposing batters didn’t have as much quality as what we will face tomorrow and in the quarterfinals. Catchers create a good game and pitchers do the work they are suppose to, along with the defense we play perfectly. I hope we can keep it going in the followin games.“
„We played great against a great team. Pitchers were throwing strikes. They hit to every direction and played a really good game. It is a well coached team. We will want to beat Austria tomorrow. We have a great pitcher ready and we will fight hard. That’s what we do since 2003 and we will continue,“ Greek manager James Demetral summed up the duel.
Czechs will play the last game in the group stage against Spain on Tuesday. Both teams have 2 wins so far and the game will decide who finishes in the first place within the group. The game starts at 17:30 in Ostrava and you can watch it live on ČT Sport.
