2008 WUC Baseball: Day 1
July 18th, 2008
Opening Ceremony
It looked like everything is against the organizers and the fans yesterday July 17th at the World University Baseball Championship as rain poured down since the early morning. Everything changed in the afternoon so people had patiently waited for the opening ceremony of this 4th edition of the Championship. However, the rain returned during the speeches of the Ostrava city politicians and the president of the Czech Baseball Association (CBA) and delayed the start of the game for about 25 minutes. Game commissionar than let the game begin.
Opening Game: CZE vs. KOR (3:6)
Both teams started the game with a lot of water coming down on them. It was a classic pitchers duel in the first half, fans under umbrellas could see strike outs and a flawless defense, with no team being able to score. Finally in the sixth inning, the Korean team got used to pitching first, scoring two runs. The Czech team came back with Simon Kudernatch´s homerun over the center field wall to close the gap to one. After the scoreless seventh the Czechs pushed to change it all around. With runners on first and second Petrik hit a single but the baserunner was tagged out at the plate. Three hits in a row than brought home two runs to make 3:2. By then the rain had stopped and the Korean team used the last chance to win in the top of the ninth by scoring four runs and this proved to be more than enough. The Czech team came up empty handed but the fans had a chance to see a very good perfomance by the host nation and hope that they will see plenty more during this championship.
Daily Scores
CZE vs. KOR: 3-6
