The Past Month of Czech Republic Senior National Team Baseball Is, Quite Frankly, Hard to Put Into Exact Words
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The past month of Czech Republic senior national team baseball is, quite frankly, hard to put into exact words. Not a lot of words can do justice to the amazing, emotional experience that the players and coaching staff and fans of Czech baseball became a part of. At the end of it all, was a great step forward for the baseball in this country. Our goal was to create a team of hungry, dedicated, passionate players that played together for our goals of medaling at the European Championships. We competed at the highest level of European baseball at the Italian Baseball Week and the European Championships, going toe-to-toe (three ending in tiebreakers) with all four countries (Italy, Holland, Spain and Germany) that finished ahead of us at the Euro Championships, including beating the World Champion Netherlands in Rotterdam. We finished our run with two games in the prestigious World Baseball Classic Qualifier, which was the ultimate test for the players and a true experience for the fans of baseball in Czech Republic. In my opinion, we did take a giant leap forward, and one that we can only hope continues for the future. Winter Season: Technika Brno Camp Oct. 22-23, 2011 The first real test for the Winter Season, was our late October camp last year at Technika Brno. We had 19 guys for this two-day event and it was the first real look at what guys wanted to be committed to the 2012 season, goals and coaching staff. The weather was a bit cold, but we got a lot of things accomplished at the camp with hitting and defense, including a live scrimmage at the end. The CBA provided the players with accommodation near the field and the camp was a success building into the Winter off-season program workouts, where our goals for the players were to build speed and strength for the busy 2012 season. On hand for the camp were Greg McCarthy and Ales Navratil for coaching staff. In attendance for players: Blazek, Baroch, Bokaj, Drabek, Drong, Dubovy, Gajdos, Hajtmar, Hernandez, Hejma, Husek, Chroust R., Janicek, T., Janicek, T., Jelinek, M., Kovarik, J., Nemec, Rehacek, Sladek, Vystrcil Offseason Winter Program Workouts in December and February: We put together an off-season strength and conditioning program for the National team guys to follow from the program I have from MLB and Jeff Krushell. Guys had access to this program via the internet and the national team site on Facebook and from copies brought to Brno and to guys in Prague. It was mandatory that any players interested in competing on the Senior National team attend these workout sessions or have a valid excuse why they couldn’t attend. We held workouts and tested in speed, agility and strength in Brno and Prague on December 10 and 11 with Ales Navratil, Lucie Cubikova and myself in attendance for the testings. We held testings again in February, where Ales Navratil, Greg McCarthy and Lucie Cubikova conducted the testings. In attendance at these sessions for players were: Baroch, Blazek, Bokaj, Budsky, Cech, Marek Cervenka, Drabek, Drong, Dubovy, Felkl, Gajdos, Hejma, Homolka, Premek Chroust, Radim Chroust, Tomas Janicek, V. Jelinek, Jonak, Kovarik, Kubat, Malik, P. Minarik, Nemec, Polansky, Rehacek, Sladek, Stritecky, Sucha, Tomek, Toufar, Vesely, Vojak, Vystrcil March 10-11 Trainings in Prague and Brno: We had a weekend workout in Brno and Prague with players selected to the spring training in Parma. All 25 players selected for the trip and also Jan Felkl of Draci Brno came to the workouts. It was a chance for us to meet again after the winter season to see how guys came back in shape and also prepare them for the goals of spring training and the schedule ideas for the rest of 2012. We did agilities, threw, hit and did defensive work with the pitchers. Players received their equipment bags and uniforms from Lucie Cubikova and the CBA. Ales Navratil, Greg McCarthy and myself were in attendance for the workouts. 2012 Spring Training in Parma: The Czech Senior National team held their 2012 spring training in Parma, Italy from March 12-18, which we traveled by bus. It was a successful trip for our national team for many reasons. We were able to get outside and train as a team for the first time together in good weather and we were able to play four exhibition matches against quality competition early on in the season. The goal of the trip was to test the 25-players selected and meet with them also individually to see how they fit into the coaching staff’s plans for the 2012 season. Coaches in attendance were Greg McCarthy, Ales Navratil and myself and from the CBA, Lucie Cubikova. Players on the spring training roster were: Baroch, Blazek, Bokaj, Budsky, Drabek, Drong, Dubovy, Gajdos, Hajtmar, Hejma, Homolka, P. Chroust, R. Chroust, T. Janicek, Malik, P. Minarik, Nemec, Rehacek, Stritecky, Tomek, Toufar, Vesely, Toufar, Vojak, Vystrcil. We were hosted by Italian A-League power ASD Parma and were able to use their field and complex for the entire week. It was a great set-up and we were able to get in multiple practices a day, working on everything we needed to. We played our first game on Thursday, March 15th, traveling to club team’s Collechio field for a night game. Our pitching and defense played well all night, as pitchers Jan Blazek, Petr Minarik, Martin Stritecky and Radim Chroust combined for a shutout in a 14-0 win. Our offense was led by Jakub Malik and Matej Hejma, who hit a towering homerun over centerfield in one of the highlights. Milan Vystrcil scored the games first runs with a clutch two-out hit. The lights went out at the stadium late in the game, but came back on after a delay and we finished the game in fine form. In game two, we played another night game against ASD Parma. We played one bad inning of defense, that led to all of Parma’s four runs. Pitchers were very effective in the game, with Boris Bokaj starting, and the relief pitching of Marian Gajdos, Jan Homolka and Jan Rehacek. Top hitters were Pavel Budsk and Martin Vesely. We lost the game 4-2. In game three, we played ASD Parma at a neutral field at Colorno and defeated them 8-3. We played strong as a team, led by great hitting performances of Vesely, Budsky, Hejma and Jan Drabek. Budsky had a long homerun and four RBI’s in the win. The pitching of Jakub Toufar, Jan Tomek, Petr Minarik and Jan Blazek kept the Parma bats quiet. It was a solid win for the team. We finished the trip with a hard-fought 5-4 win over Parma’s second team. Pitchers were Gajdos, Bokaj, Stritecky, Homolka, Rehacek and Chroust. Chroust came in relief in the 8th and pitched out of trouble to get the save. He also picked off the tying run at 2nd base in the 9th to end the game. Top hitters were Martin Drong, Matej Hejma, Basilio Hernandez, Premek Chroust and Tomas Janicek. For the 4-game set, we had 54 quality at bats in those games, led by Hejma’s 11 quality at bats. Martin Vesely had 7, Budsky 6 and Jakub Malik 5. Our pitchers threw 29 quality innings in 35 innings pitched, led by Jan Blazek with four. We also made many hustle plays on offense and defense to show a complete team approach. We became excited about the 2012 season ahead and set goals that we wanted to reach as a team. Each player understood what those goals were. A special thanks to our hosts ASD Parma and the clubs of Colorno and Collechio for their hospitality and the CBA and Lucie Cubikova for all her work coordinating the trip details, bus and hotel arrangements and game schedule. It was well organized. Prague Baseball Week June 26-July 1, 2012: Our goal for the 2012 Prague Baseball Week was to take one last live look at the players in action that would be competing for a spot on the European Baseball Championship roster and to ultimately win the tournament. We won our first four matches of the tournament, with wins over Belgium (8-6), USSSA (5-2), Czech Republic U18 (17-1), Czech Republic U21 (4-3). The games were all competitive and in particular, we needed to come from behind to defeat Belgium and the Czech U21 teams after falling down early. Matej Hejma hit a big homerun late to help us come back versus Belgium and Martin Schneider pitched great in relief to get the save. Jakub Malik provided a sacrifice fly late and Schneider again pitched in relief in a 3-2 win over a tough U21 team. Michal Sobotka pitched brilliantly for the U21’s in five innings and solidified his chances of making the men’s senior team. In the finals, we lost to the American team AIST for the second straight year. This year’s score was 12-6. Starting pitchers for the week were: Petr Minarik vs. Belgium, Jan Blazek vs. USSSA, Leos Kubat vs. Czech U18, Marek Cervenka vs. Czech U21 and Jakub Toufar vs. AIST. Top hitters for the tournament were Jan Drabek (8 hits, 8 RBIs), Martin Schneider (7 hits, 4 RBIs), Martin Drong (7 hits, 2 RBIs), Martin Vesely (6 hits, 6 runs), Matej Hejma (6 hits, 6 RBIs), Petr Baroch (5 hits, 3 RBIs) and Jakub Hajtmar (5 hits, 2 RBIs). Coaches for the tournament: Andy Berglund, Greg McCarthy, Ales Navratil, Patrick Ahearne.