Marek Chlup to Represent Czech Republic in World Baseball Classic
TOKYO – The 2022 Conference Carolinas Player of the Year and the cleanup hitter for the defending NCAA Division II National Champion Crusaders of North Greenville, Marek Chlup has stepped away from the team to play in the World Baseball Classic as a member of the Czech Republic national team.
A native of Cesky Dub, Czech Republic, Chlup grew up playing baseball in his native country with his father who also played. Chlup came to the United States to play collegiate baseball and spent two seasons at NC State before transferring to North Greenville and helping lead the Crusaders to the program’s first-ever national championship.
Chlup, who is off to a torrid start for the Crusaders in 2023, stepped away from the team to travel to Tokyo where he will don the navy blue and red of the Czech Republic team as they try to advance out of the loaded World Baseball Classic Pool B.
The first round, which features four pools of five teams each, begins today, March 8 and will run through Monday, March 13. The top two teams from each pool will advance to the semifinals on March 15-16. The top two teams from Pool B will remain in Tokyo and face the top two teams from Pool A.
Pool B is composed of two-time World Baseball Classic Champion Japan, Korea, Australia, China and the Czech Republic. Chlup will be playing with and against some of the best players in the world. Should the Czech Republic advance, they would face one of the top teams from Pool A which features Chinese Taipei, Netherlands, Cuba, Italy and Panama.
The Czech Republic play their first game in the tournament on Thursday, March 9 at 10 p.m. EST as they face Japan. The game is scheduled to be aired on tubi. Their second game will be against Japan on FS1 on Saturday, March 11 at 5 a.m. EST with a game against Korea, also on FS1, scheduled for March 11 at 10 p.m. EST. The final game of the pool for Chlup would be on Sunday, March 12 at 11 p.m. EST against Australia to be aired on FS2.
More information about the World Baseball Classic can be found here. WYFF4, the local NBC news affiliate in Greenville, did a feature on Chlup in January and that story can be seen
here.