EC: Czechs finished the group stage with a loss against Spain
Not even 2077 fans in a sold-out Arrows Park managed to push the Czech national team to a win against Spain on Tuesday. The direct game for the first place in group A went to Spain, who won 9-0.
Manager Pavel Chadim started Marek Minařík, who faced Spain two times in the previous year’s World Baseball Classic qualifier. This time, however, his outing didn’t go well. Spain hit his pitches well and Czech starter had to be substituted in the second inning while 0-4 behind. Filip Čapka who followed him didn’t have more luck and Spain was leading 8-0 after three innings.
It took Jan Novák to hold the Spanish offensive tide. Despite this, Spain scored once more when Omar Hernandez scored a solo homerun in the sixth inning and gave Spain 9-0 lead. This was all from the visitors, as Jake Rabinowitz nor Daniel Mráz didn’t allow any runs.
Czechs were unable to carry on the momentum from the first two games and only had 2 hits. They also left the batting box with a strike out 13 times, in the game they lost 0-9.
“It was a tough loss. I’m sorry we didn’t score any runs and we didn’t keep the game competitive. On the other hand, if I were to be superstitious, we always win some lose some against Spain. If we meet them in the finals, it’s good we have the loss behind us. We will be a bit more relaxed. We might have rode the wave of victories. They started the game well and you could see they want to hit. I wouldn’t make much out of this loss and if we are to face them again, we will play something new and it will be better,” Jan Novák summed up the game.
“We played very well, the pitchers were great. They threw a lot of strikes and didn’t walk batters. It helped us a lot. The offense was energetic the entire game. Good hits, good pitching – something a good team has to have. Boys were having fun and wanted to win,” said Spain manager Nestor Prada after the game.
Czechs finished second in Group A and will play the best team from Group B on Thursday in Brno’s YD Arena at 18:30. Their opponent is the Great Britain, who finished first ahead of Sweden, with Italy finishing third.
