Czechs rally from 5-run deficit, beat Danes 9-5

Denmark scored 2 runs in the first inning and 3 more in the third, all on home runs, but couldn´t hold onto their lead. The Czechs battled back with 3 runs in the bottom of the fourth and piled on 6 more in the sixth to win 9-5. Anders Jorgensen hit 2 home runs and had 4 RBI for Denmark, while Karel Kadecka hit a 3-run homer for the Czechs.

It was a big game between the last two unbeaten teams in the tournament, and the winner was virtually guaranteed a medal -- and a spot in next year´s World Championship. With that at stake, the Danes hit back-to-back home runs off starter Ales Jetmar with one out in the first inning -- Anders Jorgensen and Frederik Terkelsen both to almost the same spot in right-center field -- to almost silence the festive pro-Czech crowd that had gathered to watch the game on a warm summer´s evening in Havlickuv Brod.

Then, they tacked on 3 more runs in the third inning when Jorgensen hit another homer, a 3-run blast against Jaroslav Brenik with none out. It was 5-0 and they had also hit several long fly outs to the outfield against both Czech pitchers. On the other side, the Czech batters didn´t even have a hit yet against Kim Hansen.

"It was maybe a case of getting the early runs too easily," said head coach Jens Terkelsen after the game, after he´d just watched that big lead evaporate. "You see it a lot, when teams score a lot of runs the first few innings and then things just stop."

It wasn´t only that the offence suddenly stopped. "We also had some shaky play in the infield today which got (the Czechs) going. Once they get going they´re hard to stop."

Vaclav Svoboda got the Czechs´ first hit of the game, a one-out single to right field in the bottom of the fourth. Then Tomas Benda got on from an error, and Karel Kadlecka hit a 3-run blast to get the Czechs back in the game.

The sixth is when they really took over. It was once again Svoboda getting things started when he was hit by a pitch from Valdemar Terkelsen to lead off. Then Benda singled and Kadlecka walked to load the bases. At that point, Hansen was brought back in to pitch, but the bleeding didn´t stop. He struck out Tomas Klein for the first out, but then Tomas Petr drove in 1 run and Jiri Nezbeda hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game with two outs. Petr Vacha drove in 2 more runs, and by the time the inning was done, the score was 9-5.

The well was dry for Denmark, who still have a good chance to win a medal, but will now have to go through the back door.