RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent: Players of the Europe-Africa team leave the field at Volunteer Stadium for the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Little League World Series in South Williamsport on Wednesday, August 14, 2024.

Little League Baseball has experienced a tremendous resurgence in the Czech Republic in recent years. This resurgence has brought the country to the top of the Europe-Africa region in the sport and has now culminated in the second consecutive participation in the Little League World Series.

Leading the way is Brno-based South Czech Republic LL, which has represented the Czech Republic in the last four Europe-Africa qualifiers. This would normally indicate a lack of competition, but Czech coach Pavel Jozek disagrees.

“(The growth of) Little League was similar throughout the Czech Republic,” said Jozek. “I would say the quality of baseball improves every year.”

With increasing competition comes unhappiness. And those who overcome unhappiness become more successful.

And after dominating most of last year’s regionals — aside from a scare in the title match against the Netherlands — this year’s team somehow managed to build on last year’s success, outscoring its opponents by a combined 43-2 at the European regionals and playing more evenly after allowing six runs last year.

“At the moment I have a great team in every respect – a complete team,” said Jozek. “They can hit and throw well, even on defense.”

Although an entirely new coaching staff made its debut in the series on Thursday, four familiar faces made their second appearance at the event.

Pitcher Ilia Kolomoiets, third baseman Dominik Kliner, shortstop Stêpán Svec and first baseman Filip Stanka return to the series after being part of the team last year – bringing experience and another year of training to Volunteer Stadium.

This experience was evident on Thursday.

Kolomoiets, who did not pitch last year, broke his country’s strikeout record in the series with 10 strikeouts. He showed poise on the big stage and played a big role in the team leading for most of its game against Cuba. Although he faltered a bit in the bottom of the fourth inning, he allowed just two runs, two hits and two walks in 4.2 innings pitched and a pitch count of 82.

Kliner and Svec were also consistent in their defensive positions, regularly turning Grounders approaching their territory into force outs. And Stanka was there to intercept those missiles, displaying a similar lack of nervousness in doing so.

“The biggest difference between them (and the rest of the squad) is that they are not as scared and surprised as the new guys,” said Jozek. “We see big improvements in Ilia’s performance compared to last year.”

“Ilia was very young last year and last year’s coach relied on other guys for pitching. We see great progress in Ilia and are really grateful for that,” he added to Kolomoiets.

Although the team ultimately lost 4-1 to Cuba, they gave fans more to cheer about than last year’s opener, as they led for most of the game. Jozek believes that as the country looks to win its first series since 2013, it will simply be a matter of maintaining the level of play it showed for much of the match.

“We have to stay focused throughout the game because we were focused for four innings and that was just wasted,” said Jozek. “We want to go through the whole game and try to work on our mistakes. Then we’ll rest for the next game.”

Whatever happens in the next game, he is happy that his players got the opportunity to play in a unique event.

“It really means a lot to the children because they gain experience there,” Josek expressed. “They just love it here.”