Zápas s Kotlářkou očima asistenta Garryho

Napsal uživatel Admin | 05 Září 2010

This past Saturday, the Arrows Junior EXL squad ventured to Prague in the wee hours of the morning in hopes of capturing a semi-final birth against Kotlarka. The adversity of waking up at 5am as well as a 4 hour travel on the train into the capital city did not phase these boys one bit—they were focused and they were confident that they were going to bring home the big win. 

When facing the top team in the league in their city, it was an obvious choice that we were going to roll out our ace onto the mound: Marko Vykoukal. The coaching staff knew that if he kept us in the game for 6 innings, the combination of reliever Vojtech Jurdzin and closer Tomas Junec would seal the deal for the win. As the coaching staff expected, Marko pitched brilliantly. Through 6 complete innings, Marko allowed only 2 runs (1 earned) on 2 hits while striking out 7. 

When Vojtech Jurdzin was slotted in to pitch in the top of the 7th, Arrows had already accumulated 9 runs. The team was slow during the first two innings to produce baserunners. Kotlarka’s starting pitcher was receiving success during this time due to his slow fastball and good location. However, the players adjusted to the speed by their second time around in the batting order and began hammering the ball.

On the day, the Arrows offense collected 10 runs-however, there were only 6 hits. This is not to say that the players hit poorly: there were many errors made due to the speed that the ball was coming off of the bat plus a number of walks. Also, as always, we were putting runners in motion with steals and hit & runs-combine the pressure of a sharply hit ground ball with the knowledge of having to get rid of it quickly to make an out and it is clear to see why there were so many errors on the opponent’s part. None of the players had multiple hits on the day, however every batter reached base and had a significant impact in the run production for this game. Once again , as expected by us coaches, the combination of Vojtech Jurdzin and Tomas Junec shut the Kotlarka offense down in the final 3 innings to collect a much-deserved win for the Arrows squad.