FORT MYERS, Fla. – Last winter was the first Perfect Game encounter for players from Czech Republic at the 12u International Championship, leaving an impact on everyone that came out of the Baseball Academy in Brno, the second largest city in Czech Republic, that made the trip over to Southwest Florida.
David Winkler, the founder of the academy, has brought the first team from the country to participate in the PG Series events and they took part in their first day of tournament play in the Freshman Series on Tuesday.
“It’s all about the experience for these kids, competing against some amazing players,” Winkler said. “It’s amazing how big some of these kids are from around the U.S. and from around the world down here. I want the kids to see how the game should be played and watch how the other teams play because they can learn a lot from observing and try to get better from it. If they see how they should play, hopefully they’ll come back home and play that way as well.”
Baseball in the Czech Republic is on the rise, and along with the endeavors branching out with Perfect Game, Major League Baseball also has partnered with the Baseball Academy with a camp that took place in May called the MLB Cadet Camp that hosted 60 of the top players in the country that were born between 2001 and 2005. Plans are already in the making for a similar type of event with the MLB in October.
“We’re trying to focus on getting kids going into the program at 10, 11, 12 years old to build them up as they develop,” Winkler added. “You’ve seen kids from our country play in the Little League World Series, and obviously we’re a country known for hockey and soccer and baseball is coming up, but it’s not easy to build it up. It’s an expensive sport, and it’s not cheap to be here.”
On Tuesday, Czech Republic played two games against Coastal and West, and even though the outcomes ended in 7-2 and 14-2 defeats respectively, the ultimate goal of the week for the players is to continue to make improvements, and as exhibited on the field, play baseball with a smile on their faces.
Against Coastal, Czech Republic pitchers showed themselves well as Petr Vojta (2020, Czech Republic) struck out three in three innings, and Milan Tomecek (2022, Czech Republic) and Martin Jiranek (2021, Czech Republic) each picked up four strikeouts in two innings of work apiece.
Prokop and Vlach (2022, Czech Republic) each had two hits, while Patrik Mostek (2022, Czech Republic) netted the lone RBI in their 14-2 defeat to the West on a single to right field.
“It’s the first time for a lot of these kids to be here down in Florida, they didn’t know what to expect,” Winkler said. “With some of them having played in Williamsport, they’ve had a taste of baseball in the U.S., but it really is most important for our kids to learn as much as they can even at this level. The passion for the game other teams show, how hard teams play, if we pick up on those things, it would be great.”
The maiden voyage into Perfect Game competition will see Czech Republic bring another group to the 12u International Championship, with a handful of players who came down the first time that will return for a second time.
“A lot of those kids will know what to expect when they return down here in October,” Winkler said. “Some of them are playing in Taiwan in the U-12 Baseball World Cup so they will have experience in big events and I think we’ll have a much better team here this year for the event than we did last year.”
For a country relatively young in terms of its baseball roots, the Czech Republic had a strong showing in the qualifier for the 2017 World Baseball Classic, losing two one-run games in route to falling a game short of a potential spot in the main draw. With a continued effort to branch out across the youth within the country, the growth of baseball in the Czech Republic will certainly be one to watch in the coming years.