Czechia played well against South Korea and is showing the region’s growth
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As soon as Czechia manager Michal Klimes heard the question, he had a big smile come across his face. His team had just suffered a 5-0 loss to Seoul, South Korea at Volunteer Stadium on Friday night, but that loss almost was secondary for the Europe and Africa Regional champion.
Instead of needing a translator, Klimes answered the question in his best English to express truly how happy he was in the moment.
"So much. Really, I'm so proud for everyone. I know good this team is and this game can be different, and I'm so proud for everyone," Klimes said. "Every pitcher, every fielding guy, I'm happy. We lost 5-0, but I'm so happy. Really."
In year's past, a first-round matchup against a perennial power like the representatives from Asia-Pacific could have quickly turned into a mercy-rule game. And likely, there may not have been a lot of fans who gave Czechia a chance against Seoul, South Korea.
But on Friday, the Europe and Africa Regional champions from Brno, Czechia battled and gave South Korea everything they had and through five innings, it was one exciting contest.
South Korea won, 5-0, but it was a 2-0 game through five innings and Czechia loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth inning in a two-run game and made things interesting against a team which had outscored its opponents entering Friday through regionals and its first Little League World Series game a staggering 71-1.
"We knew that Asia Pacific is one of the best teams in the world and we were just trying to use our strengths which are the inner-strength on the team between the guys and we tried to stick to our plan, play good baseball and don't make unnecessary mistakes," Klimes said. "We were preparing for this game and tournament for a long time, especially mentally. So we put guys in the right position to compete against one of the best teams in the world."
South Korea has a solid lineup that can spark anywhere at any time.
In the first two innings, Czechia pitcher Tobias Pivoda held South Korea scoreless and to just two hits. Easier said than done against the Asia-Pacific champions.
"He gave us the game of his lifetime. One of the best games he's ever pitched," Klimes said of Pivoda, who went three innings with four hits allowed, four strikeouts and just one earned run. "He pitched the best game of his life and I'm really proud of him. We're just happy for him."
Friday's game showed that baseball in the Czechia region is on the rise at the youth level. Last year, Brno, Czechia recorded just one hit through its two games played. It already matched that with a single against a talented South Korean pitcher on Friday at Volunteer Stadium when Simon Suchy had a single and finished the day going 1 for 1.
"We think it's really important to point out against this pitching, their quality of offspeeds and stuff, our team never batted against in the Czech Republic or anywhere else. This was great competition," Klimes said. "We were glad we had that hit,but we had a number of solid contacts we put into play and great ABS. Lots of walks. That's important for us as well.
"We want to build off that momentum and we had a hit against one of the best arms Asia-Pacific has, their closer. But, we want to build off that. We're trying to work with our guys, especially mentally, because they know they can expect anything."
A strong showing against South Korea has Klimes and Czechia fans happy that they competed as well as they did. But Klimes admitted that there's still quite a gap to close in order to be as good as other teams who come to the Series.
"We feel better about our program after today's game. In Europe the competition is getting better every year and we're getting better and compare the results each year. But we still have a big gap in the top of the world in baseball," Klimes noted. "I think we're doing things well, we're getting better, but there's still a big difference especially in pitching. There's still a huge gap from our tough guys and, for example, Korea. We're 10 million people (in Czechia) with small number of players compared to Korea, compared to the United States.
"With resources we have, yeah, I think we're getting better."
That was evident to anyone in attendance on Friday night at Volunteer Stadium. Czechia is showing it can compete with teams, and that's great for Little League in Europe.