Flies victorious at Middle of Season 2K17!

36 hours, four games, three wins decided, that Flies bring from Bučovice trophy for 1st place and one individual award.
It´s easy to write about nice things. Especially if this season there weren´t too many. But let´s start from beginning. For those, who didn´t watch play-by-play, here is a little summary:

Game system: teams played each other for 90 minutes, third place and final game 7 innings with no time limit.

Fighting Flies – Skokani Olomouc 5:3
Our first tournament game. Last Victory with Skonani more than a year ago in Bučovice. After that three games all lost. But, we had a visitor from Belgium this weekend: well known Takeru Sorita. Coaches decided to use him as much as possible, so we created japaneese pitcher-catcher battery with Sorita pitching and Tokunaka as a catcher. No runs, great defence in 1st inning at both sides.
Second inning started with double by Skokani, followed by two flyouts. It was looking as another scoreless inning, but next better reached first base on walk. Martin Poledna hit a double and 2RBI´s opened the score. Ground out at first finished the top of second. Walk for Martin Beňa, than flyout, but David Achberger hit a single. Runners advanced on passball to third and second. Sorita walked. Tokunaka hit to short, Sorita forced out on second, but Beňa scored. Toman hit by pitch. Strapko out at first, so inning ended with 3 LOB. No runs for Skokani in third. Hatvany walked and after one out we loaded the bases. Achberger hit to short and after catching error we scored three runs. Achberger advanced to second. Sorita walked. Tokunaka hit to third for ground out. Pick-off caught Sorita at second and ended our offense. Strikeout, single and stolen second base brought in Martin Poledna. Hit to outfield and another RBI for him. Sorita ended the inning with another strikeout. Fourth inning started with two hits (Toman, Strapko), but Toman caught by stealing third. Strapko advanced to second. Hit to outfield by S. Šišolák, Strapko scored. Predajňa struck out swinging, Šišolák caugh by stealing third. No runs for Skokani in fifth.

Pelikans Bučovice – Fighting Flies 1:5
We switched cather for pitcher for this game and added DH. Tokunaka as a SP started. Groundout and flyout for game start is not bad. Third hitter Tomáš Vykoukal advanced to second with double, but Tokunaka struck out next batter and inning for Bučovice was over. Hatvany hit by pitch, Achberger hit to second and after catching error Hatvany moved to second, Achberger save at first. Sorita singled to left, Hatvany scored. Error by left field Achberger scored as well. Sorita advanced to third Toman walked. 1-3 signal played well and Sorita scored. Toman advanced to second. Šišolák and Strapko struck out. No runs in second for Pelikans or Flies. Scoreless offense in third for Bučovice. Achberger hit by pitch. Rebro doubled to center, advanced to second, Achberger to third. Sorita groundout at first on fielder´s choice. Achberger scored, Rebro advanced to third. Toman grounded to pitcher. Strapko advanced to first on error of first baseman. Rebro Scored. Samuel Šišolák struck out looking. Fourth inning started with double by Pelikan´s Šmehlík. Krejčí struck out swinging, Šmehlík advanced to third on wild pitch. Kotrba walked. 1-3 signal well played by Bučovice. Šmehlík scored, Kotrba advanced to second, after a steel to third. Mikulášek and Čiháček grounded out. No runs in last two innings and game was over. Predajňa injured in fifth after steal attempt of Pelikans at third base. Runner forget to put his legs down after slide and scratched Predajňa´s face. Luckily no stitches needed.

Fighting Flies – Hroši Brno 3:4
After two W´s on Saturday we knew, 1st place game is waiting. But one more game before that was ahead of us. We survived the evening without harm (most of us), even other teams were trying hard by offering lot´s of alcohol. Expect one (no names) we started the game ready and fresh with two new players: Ortega – P and Petríček – C. Ortega well known for his pitches which are driving opponents crazy. No runs for us in first, even we had bases loaded after three walks. Lead-off single of Hroši, error in right field advanced him to third. Odstrčil walked and advanced to second by steal. Jelínek singled to left, Hroši scored, Odstrčil advanced to second. Ortega struck out two and inning ended. We loaded the bases Šišolák singe, Toman walked, Strapko hit by pitch, but three strikeouts left three on bases with no run. Scoreless next inning on both sides. Single advanced hitter of Hroši to first. Steal of second and bunt moved runners to first and third. Jelínek walked. Bases loaded with no out. Sobotka hit grounded to first, but after error at first base runners moved and Odstrčil scored. Another error brought home next runner. Slavík singled to center with 1 RBI. After all Ortega struck out three in a row.  Score 0:4 for Hroši. But: Strapko singled, Rebro doubled to center, Achberger walked. Tokunaka hit to left, Strapko and Rebro scored. Petríček singled, Achberger scored, Tokunaka advanced to third. Too much effort caused out at home of Tokunaka by steal attempt. Two more strikeouts ended our offense. No runs for Hroši next inning. We loaded bases in fifth and almost scored, but Sorita tripped by stealing home. Game ended and finale was waiting…

Hroši Brno – Fighting Flies 0:3
Finale. Who missed first inning could regret. We started as home team, so Hroši at bat first. It was a 7 innings game with no time limit. Strapko pitching, Rebro behind the plate. Lead-off struck out. Jelínek advanced to first after fielding error of Achberger. He stole second with the next pitch. But next batter struck out and Jelínek caught stealing third. Tokunaka advanced to first after fielding error of first base. Home run by Toman put us ahead by two. Sorita walked. Rebro fly out at center. Sorita stole second. Hatvany walked. Achberger out at center. Petríček singled, Sorita scored. Ground out at first of Predajňa ended the inning. After first inning no runs scored, but the game was exciting till the very end. Great defence plays by both teams. Martin Strapko struck out 12 batters, no hit. Great defence. After a long time it´s first place for the Flies.

Final Standings:
1. Fighting Flies Bratislava
2. Hroši Brno C
3. Pelikans Bučovice
4. Skokani Olomouc B

We would like to thank Pelikans Bučovice for invitation and great organization, to all of our opponents for great games and spirit.

We should not forget to mention all players:
Martin Strapko
Tomáš Rebro
Yuusyun Tokunaka
Michal Šišolák
Jozef Toman
Samuel Šišolák
Takeru Sorita
Denis Hatvany
Roman Maček
Dávid Achberger
Martin Beňa
Daniel Predajňa
Tomáš Petríček
Arturo Ortega

Tournament pictures to follow asap in our Gallery.
In two weeks Toreros cup. Check our website and facebook for more info.

#gofflies #middleofseason