Extraliga Opening Day brought walkoff and a huge win
The wait for the baseball fans in the Czech Republic is finally over. Friday marked Opening Day of 2025 Extraliga with the sounds of bats and flashing leather on 4 different fields. And it lived up to the hype.
Skolo traveled to YD Arena to challenge the reigning champions. And they started the game well, when their new signing Jantzen Witte batted in the first run of the game with his Extraliga career. At this point no one could know this was the last hit of the game for Sokol. On the other hand hosts managed to push in the bottom half of the inning and batted around against Roldan Ochoa who returned to Extraliga after a couple of years. Draci were thus leading 1-6 after the first inning.
Luis Moncada debuted on the mound for Draci. He managed to throw 4 innings and strike out 6. Jan Vašourek continued after him, throwing the same amount of innings without allowing a hit, for Vojtěch Ventruba to close the game. Hosts sent in Go Tanabe who had a good game, where he didn’t allow any runs in 3 innings and struck out 6 batters.
Hero Weinzimer
Prague derby offered an exciting matchup, where we waited till the last hit to know the winner. The first five innings were an excellent pitching duel, going for David Křeček who didn’t allow any hits and struck out 10. Home Natuski Tamba only allowed one run. It came in the second inning after a hit from Ben Morgan. The same man then increased the lead in the sixth inning and reached home in the eighth for the third run after a wild pitch. At that point Kotlářka held 3-1 lead and was well on their way to a win.
However, the bottom half of the eighth inning changed everything. Hosts took advantage of for walks from Lukáš Ercoli, to tie the game at 3-3. The winner thus had to be decided at the very end. Eagles sent Koya Uemura on the mound, who struck out 3 and hosts could focus on their offense. However, they started the bottom half of the inning with 2 strikeouts and it seemed the game would go to the extra innings. Michal Antoň and Uemura were then walked, however, and Marcus Weinzimer came in as a hear when he finished the host’s comeback with a hit.
SaBaT returns with a loss
Another Prague team had a long road to the east of the country. Extraliga newcomer challenged Arrows who finished third in the previous season. In the end, they were unable to beat the hosts. Arrows were helped by a strong duo on the mound – Ondřej Satoria and Brandon Smith who kept the visitors scoreless. Visiting pitching had a tough time controlling their pitches, resulting into a number of walks. Ostrava was close to wrapping up the game on mercy rule in the eighth inning, but SaBaT managed to tag Matyáš Kozel close to the home base and the game finished an inning later.
Nuclears didn’t have a good first game at home
The only home team not to win on Opening Day was Třebíč Nuclears. Their bats went silent against Yaferson López and Matthew Malconian who accumulated 14 strikeouts. Home pitchers also had a good game, when they struck out 12. Their starter Wuilder Rodriguez, however, could used more support from the defense as an error led to the first Hroši run in the third inning.
After hits from Matěj Menšík and Tomáš Řícný against Lukáš Smejkal in the eighth inning Hroši added 2 more runs. Nuclears scored their first run in the bottom half of the eighth inning, when Vojtěch Šabacký reached the home after a wild pitch. This was all from the hosts, however, and their fans had to deal with the first loss of the season.
