SVK: He only came a few days ago. American playing for Skalica impressed with an excellent game, favorite lost
The article was originally published at sportnet.sme.sk.
Outmen Skalica played last year’s finalist Angels Trnava on Saturday. We got to see an upset in the game, where Trnava was a clear favorite. Skalica was helped mainly by a fantastic performance from their pitcher, American Riley Moore.
Career maximum
American came to Skalica only a few days before the game and he played his first game in Slovak Extraliga on Saturday. And right away it was an unforgettable performance. Moore threw a complete game and Trnava only scored two runs against him. He frustrated the batters with a combination of his pitches as 20 batters left the box with a strikeout, which is something you don’t get to see in a baseball game every day. The same feat only happened 4 times in the past 150 years in MLB. It is fair to say this performance will go down in the historical statistics for the team from Skalica.
„I felt good. We finally had a sunny day, a great day for baseball. A beautiful field and the only thing we could wish for was a win. Twenty strikeouts today was my career maximum. I would mainly like to thank the team,“ said the cheerful American, who played in Australia and Sweden before.
Skalica beat Trnava for the first time
„He put out an excellent performance. Nobody expected it. We were teasing him before the game on how many strikeouts he would be able to get, but we didn’t expect the actual number. We beat Trnava for the first time in the team history. It is a great start to the season,“ Skalica manager Radovan Nespala showed his satisfaction.
Nespala could be satisfied with other things as well. The 10-2 win was also thanks to another foreigner, who he brought to the team before the season. Australian Jackson Platten had 4 hits and a walk. „This is my first time in Europe and it’s a great experience. I enjoyed the game. It was fun,“ said the Australian after the game.
Skalica had hands in the first upset of the season. They can attempt another one next week when they play reigning champions Apollo Bratislava.
