A heart-stopping battle with a happy end! After a game full of runs Czechs beat Britain

This was a battle with everything it should have. The second game at the European Women Championship saw Czechs face the Great Britain. After an incredible thriller with a lot of twists and turns it was the Czechs who came on top and won 15:12. The win now moves them closer to the Sunday finals.

Czechs coaches started experience Tereza Šustrová on the mound, while Brits started with Gabriella Sassoli. Both pitchers dominated the first two innings and kept the game scoreless. First runs came in the third inning, however, where Brits took 1:0 lead after a sacrificial hit from Darier Malone.

Czech responds was however swift. The bottom half of the inning saw Kateřina Marková to score after a wild pitch for Tereza Šustrová to bat in two of her teammates. This force Britain to change the pitcher. Czech defense kept firm in the fourth inning where Tereza Šustrová helped herself with 3 strikeouts. In the offense, Czechs kept pushing and despite two more pitching changes they added 2 more runs and took 5:1 lead.

But Britain returned to the game in the fifth inning, where they took advantage of shaky defense and finished the half inning 5:3. Our lionesses responded quickly, however, and it a great style. Marie Bullen had an amazing triple, and she then reached the home base herself after a hit from Nika Peerová. Czech offense improved and while being 10:3 up the national team had bases loaded, however, they didn’t take the chance to finish the game early after an amazing defensive effort from Britain’s shortstop.

The sixth inning saw a pitching change on the Czech mound when Karolína Blažková came in and Britain took advantage. They pressured Czechs which forced them to make errors and lower their lead to 10:6. Their pressure only stopped after Kateřina Maříková came on the mound.

Fortunately Britain’s defense was also not without a fault. Czechs punished every falter in the focus in the sixth inning and batted around. With 5 runs scored they finished the inning leading 15:6. But the following inning was a heart-stopper for Czech fans, as Britain managed to score enough to get to 15:12 score. However, Simona Kitzbergerová, who became the last Czech pitcher of the game, managed to get game over the line and get Czechs an important win.

After a dramatic game national team coach Richard Kania summed up what played the main part in the win. „We still had pitchers to play. I think that was the key, because Terka Šustrová started excellently. Then we had two pitchers who got in trouble a little bit, but then came Simona Kitzbergerová, and she, even if there was some trouble, closed the game just as we needed her to. Important thing is that we won every inning, except for the last one, but the girls didn’t get to bat there.„

Kania also appreciated the support of the fans. „It is a difference. We thank the fans they are here. They even stopped to coach today, so they let me…they even sometimes yelled ‚Listen to Ríša‘ so that was great.„

With the win against the Great Britain, Czechs earned an important win and they still have a huge chance to reach the finals. They will play the last game of the round robin on Saturday against France.

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