Ostrava Arrows home field
After a solid week of good weather and sunny practices in Brno, we
traveled to across country to take on the Ostrava Arrows for our 3rd and
4th games of the 2013 season on Saturday April 20th, for a blistering
cold affair.
(On a personal note this is the furthest east I've traveled in Europe in 7 years).
The
first game was a see-saw battle just like the first game last week
against Olomouc and just like in Olomouc we surrendered a late lead with
some defensive miscues. With the score tied in the bottom of the 8th,
the Arrows scored on a balk against our young lefty Svata Kraut who was
pitching well in relief. This run was costly as it proved to be the
difference, as they hung on for a 7-6 win. Vojtech Jelinek was solid in
his first start of the season, going 5+ innings before Kraut relieved
him by working out of a jam in the 6th. We also received great
individual efforts from our 2-4 hitters - Premek Chroust who got on base
all day through hits and base on balls, Jan Jablonka hit the ball hard
even though some didn't fall in, and Milan Vystrcil drove in a few runs
from the cleanup spot.
Game 2 proved no match for our bats, as we put up a 7
spot in the 3rd highlighted by a home run from Vystrecil. We received
strong pitching from starter Marek Bosansky who threw only 75 pitches in
6 innings, as well as from Jakub Okasa and Jan Hrib, who both pitched
for the first time this season, and closed out the 12-3 win in 8 innings
for our squad. Chroust and Tomas Janicek also crushed homers and Matej
Samek played outstanding defense in LF.
Overall, our defense is improving and our 2-strike hitting was much better after working all week in practice on trying to make productive outs and get key RBI's even if the count is not in our favor. Once again Martin Dvorak caught 17 innings behind the plate and should be praised for stepping up due to our depleted catching depth from injuries and illness.
Next week we'll be in Brno for the first time this year against rival Technika.
Overall, our defense is improving and our 2-strike hitting was much better after working all week in practice on trying to make productive outs and get key RBI's even if the count is not in our favor. Once again Martin Dvorak caught 17 innings behind the plate and should be praised for stepping up due to our depleted catching depth from injuries and illness.
Next week we'll be in Brno for the first time this year against rival Technika.
Our 8, 9, and 1 hitters getting their swings on.
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