EXL: Excellent Ondra led Hroši. Draci didn’t allow Eagles a single run
Extraliga continued with 4 games on Saturday, in which we got to see dominant pitching performances without a huge number of runs. Tomáš Ondra shone, finishing the game with only one hit allowed.
The two teams from the top of the table met in Brno on Saturday. Both team also have a good pitching stuff this year, which they showed in the game itself. Tomáš Ondra threw a complete game shutout for Hroši, when he only allowed 1 hit to Nuclears and added 11 strikeouts. Due Lukáš Hlouch and Lukáš Pacal had a similarly good day on the visitor’s mound, when they allowed 2 runs and struck out 12.
The winner was decided in the bottom of the fourth inning, when Lukáš Trunkát batted in the first run. The second came from Tomáš Říčný after a sacrificial hit in the eighth inning. The only hit from Nuclears came from Jake Rabinowitz.
Kotlářka’s vendetta
Hluboká celebrated walkoff against Kotlářka on Friday, and they wanted to continue on Saturday. And it looked like the team from South Bohemia would get just that after 4 innings, as they were leading 2-0. However, they lost their lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, when hosts scored 3 runs.
Sokol was able to tied the game in the sixth inning, when they took advantage of a defensive error. Kotlářka also substituted their starter Lukáš Ercoli for David Křeček. And the young pitcher grabbed his chance when he didn’t allow any runs in 4 innings. Tempo’s win was decided in the seventh inning by Wesley Roemer. Kotlářka won 4-3 and tied the series at 1-1, sending Hluboká back to the last place in the standings.
Ostrava won again
The duel at Tempo had a similar development as the one at Kotlářka. Hosts were leading 2-0 after 4 innings, after a hit from Aleš Nepomucký and a solo homerun from Michal Zelenka. Arrows were kept in check by Ondřej Vank till the 5th inning, when Jakub Malík blasted a two run homerun.
David Mergans came on the mound in the sixth inning and he remained there for almost 2 innings. Jakub Malík first batted in the third run for Arrows in the seventh inning, for Matyáš Kozel’s three run homerun to increase the lead of his team. Daniel Černý then batted in the seventh run for Ostrava in the following inning.
Playing manager Boris Bokaj then came in for the starter Jan Tomek in the bottom half of the inning. He was quickly welcomed by a solo homerun from Marek Minařík, closely followed by Michal Zelenka who blasted his second homerun in the game. That was all Bokaj allowed to the home team and Arrows won 8-4.
Draci zeroed out Eagles
Two Czech teams playing in Champions Cup faced each other in Prague. Both teams started pitchers who played on Wednesday as well. Filip Čapka had more to celebrate at the end when he threw 7 scoreless innings. Eagles’ Natsuki Tamba had 0 ER by the end of six innings, but Draci managed to score 2 runs anyway. The first came in the second inning after a wild pitch and the second after a defensive error.
Martin Červinka then batted in the fourth run in the eighth inning against Uemura, after Filip Moštek reached the home base a few moments before on a throwing error from catcher to the second base. Draci won 4-0 and tied Hroši in the first place in the table.
