EC: Czechs back to the winnings ways after beating France. They will play for the fifth place
After losing in quarterfinals, Czech team changed their goal, this time aiming for the 5th place. They first needed to beat the other team that lost quarterfinals, France.
France starter Nicolas Antoine managed to keep up with Czech batter for only an inning. Arnošt Dubový then scored a two run homerun in the second inning which kickstarted Czech offense. Vojtěch Menšík and Marek Chlup batted in three more runs in the third inning, which marked the end for Antoine. France bullpen didn’t have more luck, however, as Martin Červenka added three run homerun in the fourth inning.
Ondřej Satoria on Czech mound had a much better game. Beside the pitching, he also had a defensive play, where he caught a ball aiming directly at him.
The sixth inning saw a highlight play from Martin Červenka, who hit his second homerun and increase the lead to 10-0. A few moments later Martin Mužík took advantage of a wild pitch and scored the eleventh Czech run.
The question remained, however. Would Ondřej Satoria keep his opponents scoreless? Unfortunately, Paolo Brossier took this from him in the seventh inning when he adjusted the score to final 11-1.
“After yesterday’s tough loss in front of a fantastic fans we told each other a few things and we told ourselves we couldn’t play like this. There’s still chance to play for the fifth place, which is very important for us. The start of the game looked according to that. Good at bats, great defense, great pitching from Ondřej Satoria and we ran over France together. It is good for our mental side and I hope it will help us with the game against Isreal,” said the author of one of the homeruns, Arnošt Dubový after the game.
“Czech pitcher pitched well. He dominated, he threw strikes and he kept the pitches down. Czech offense had important homeruns when they had runners on bases. We tried, but their pitcher dominated,” French manager Keino Perez summed up the game.
Czechs will play for the fifth place on Saturday and they will have extra motivation, as it was Israel who beat them in quarterfinals at the previous European Championship.
