College Baseball: Martin Zelenka with his first HR in NCAA D1
A review of Czech players overseas will be longer this time. We finally get to see the start of NCAA D1, with three Czechs playing.
Daniel Padyšák played for Georgia University for the first time against Georgia State. He threw the seventh inning while his team won 15-0. Padyšák only allowed 1 hit and striked out 1. Georgia has a good season so far, when they are yet to lose after 7 games.
Michal Kovala also got his chance against Georgia Tech. In the Friday game against Cornell he stepped on the mound in the last inning with the score at 9-5. Two out of five batters managed to get a hit against him, but two also left the batting box with a strikeout. Kovala allowed one run, which didn’t turn out to be important, since Georgia Tech won 9-6 in the end. His second start came on Sunday, where he came to close the first half of the ninth inning with two outs, when his teammate Ben King couldn’t get the last out. In the end, he managed to do his job with 7 pitches and he sent Cornell home with a strikeout. However, Georgia Tech lost 4-11 this team, which was the first loss for the team this season.
Martin Zelenka plays for UNC Wilmington and he had a great first game for them against Coastal Carolina. He entered the game in the ninth inning as a pinch-hitter and he finished his AB with a solo homerun. He then got his chance during the week against Princeton. He once again played as a pinch-hitter on Friday and got walked in the eighth inning. Zelenka was a starting catcher on Saturday and had a hit from 4 AB as his team lost 1-4.
Martin Zelenka nastoupil ke svému prvnímu utkání v prvodivizním univerzitním týmu UNC Wilmington a svůj první stav na pálce proměnil v homerun.#baseballczech pic.twitter.com/498hr696UI
— Milujeme Baseball (@MilujemeBasebal) February 21, 2024
Jan Pospíšil played three games for Pitt Community against Richard Bland College. He got 2 H and 1 RBI in the first game, but his team lost 5-11. Pospíšil added another hit and a walk on Saturday, and a walk on Sunday. Unfortunately, Pitt lost all three games. Pospíšil now has 8 walks and is at the top among Pitt Community players in this category.
Nicolas O’Rourke played more games for Diablo Valley, this time throwing 3 innings against Chabot. This time he only allowed 2 hits and walked 1 batter, while striking out 3 batters. Chabot players scored 2 hits against him, however, both were unearned. Diablo Valley lost 0-6 in the end, which marked their 10th loss in 12 games.
Max Prejda also played his first three games for Inspiration Academy and he played well so far. His first game was against the opponent Czech fans should be familiar with, since IMG Academy played against Czech U18 national team in Porto Rico and Czech player earned 2 hits and 4 RBI. In the second game he had two more hits and he also pitched a hitless inning with two strikeouts. He wrapped up everything on Saturday against FIBA, where he had 1 H, 1 RBI and 1 BB.
First day on tournament in Alabama. We played 2 games. I went 4-7. My batting average is 0.571. Cannot wait to play another games!@CombineBase @TheClubhouseBa3 @SBATheShow @sbacollegepros1 @BaseballCzech @MilujemeBasebal @Jbirk_04 @AdamJacques_33 pic.twitter.com/p06mmCAmsk
— Simon Hanzal (@SimonHanzal_) February 23, 2024
Good 1st week for the Dons. 2-0 with 2 comeback wins.
— Benjamin O’Rourke (@benjiorourke) February 24, 2024
Went 2/5 with 3 walks, 2 rbi. pic.twitter.com/W0JoReZqQm
