Hellas baseball will suit up again, first time since 2021 European Championship, this week for the 41st Prague Baseball Week. An annual tournament hosted by the Czech Baseball Federation, this tournament provides the opportunity for the Czech to field an All-Star team of its natural players plus another all-star team consisting of its younger players, to build international baseball experience. The tournament usually consists of France, Spain, Czech Republic, an American “travel” team and a US born all-star team made up of players playing overseas in various European leagues.

The tournament will run from Wednesday Jun 22nd through Saturday June 25th with 2 groups of 4. The semifinals and finals will be Saturday as the top 2 teams from each pool will advance. Greece will face Czech Republic on Wednesday, then Spain Thursday and Old World on Friday.

Group A: Czech, Old World Baseball, Greece, Spain

Group B: Czech Prospects, Hakusoh Globetrotters, The North, France

The Greeks will be fielding a team full of new faces and young prospects. Manager Chris Demetral wanted to use this tournament as a “scouting” event, which will allow younger players to get a chance to showcase their talents and build experience as the federation prepares for the 2023 European Championship and 2024 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers. Hellas is coming off a successful 2021 campaign winning the Utena European Qualifier to advance to the European Championship. The Greeks finished 14th out of 16 teams to qualify for the 2023 tournament. Greece avoided relegation for the first time since 2016.

The team has some very talented young stars including Demitri Diamant, Elijah Lambros, Braedon Karpathios, Akili Carris and Maddox Mihalakis. Diamant is entering his freshman year at Georgia Tech as a highly recruited prospect out of Las Vegas. Lambros just transferred to the University of Maryland after spending his freshman year at University of South Carolina.

Some older newcomers include Chase Ingram, Nik Verbeke and Peter Dudunakis. Ingram was a 6th round pick by the New York Mets in the 2015 MLB draft. He currently plays in the Atlantic League. Verbeke was a standout at Furman University and currently plays independent professional baseball.

The coaching staff is very excited about the future of the program and getting a lot of new faces to bolster the depth of Hellas baseball. Manager Chris Demetral is making his managerial debut this week after he was chosen to lead the blue and white last December. He has formed his staff with Erik Pappas, a former MLB’er, and his brother Scott Demetral, a former recruiting coordinator at the University of Akron.

All information, stats, and live streams this week will be posted on Instagram and Twitter @greekbaseball.