The No. 1 European prospect is the Czech Republic's bullpen weapon

The Czech Republic's World Baseball Classic hopes all rested on the arm of a willowy 18-year-old with a fireballing right arm and a gut of steel. After losing its first game, 21-7, to Spain, one more loss would send them home -- another tournament would have passed by without the small central European nation taking part. So, after coming from behind after an early 3-0 deficit to Germany, the CR held a narrow 7-4 lead in the top of the fifth inning.

Starter Daniel Padyšák had settled down after that rough first frame, but with the bases loaded manager Pavel Chadim made the call: He was going to Perfect Game's No. 1 European prospect, Michal Kovala.

It could have been a risky decision. The fate of the Czech Republic's World Baseball Classic hopes rested on a kid who was still in high school.

But Kovala wasn't worried: He had actually predicted the whole thing before the game started.

"I told [Padyšák] before the game, 'If you got runners on with no outs, I got you,'" Kovala said.

Kovala induced a groundout, then got a swinging strikeout to end the frame. He pitched four more scoreless innings, ending the game on a ground-ball double-play straight back to the mound from former big leaguer Bruce Maxwell. There was never a moment of doubt in the youngster's mind -- even though this was the first tournament he had competed in with the national team.

"He's not scared," Czech Republic pitching coach John Hussey said. "It wouldn't matter if it's a big league hitter or a guy that's new to baseball to him. It's the same guy in the box. It's easy to coach with somebody like that."

A few days later, the Czech team upset Spain to qualify for its first World Baseball Classic. It shouldn't be surprising that Kovala isn't shook. Seemingly born with an impish grin and the kind of self-belief everyone should aspire to, Kovala is ready for anything when the Czech Republic begins Pool B play in Tokyo later this week.

"I really enjoy pressure," Kovala said. "I go in and I just pitch."

Before the upcoming World Baseball Classic and long before Perfect Game named him the No. 1 European prospect, Kovala was like most kids learning from their family. Kovala's father had played for the Czech national team and his older brother played in the Czech Baseball Extraliga.

"The first time I got to practice, they showed me the glove and I put it on the wrong hand -- obviously," Kovala said with a laugh. "And then they told me to put it on the left because you throw with your better hand."

But Kovala wasn't some kid growing up in Texas or the Dominican Republic. He was born in Ostrava -- a small mining city in the Czech Republic's northeast corner. Even with the Czech baseball team having recently made history, baseball trails far behind hockey and soccer. Only 10,000 people in the country even play the sport.

"Not everybody knows about baseball. When you walk around and you're like, 'Oh, I'm going to the World Baseball Classic,' people in Czech are like, 'Uhhh ...'" Kovala jokes.

The youngster with a big arm quickly caught coach's eyes, though. A member of the Ostrava Arrows youth baseball team, they quickly promoted him far beyond his age. He was the Doogie Howser of the diamond, the young phenom dominating against anyone and everyone in the league.

"I played for under-12, under-15s, under-18s," Kovala said. "At one time, I think I was 16, I was playing for the under-18 team, on their U-23 team and the men's league, too. I was on three teams at one time."

He earned an invite to MLB's European camps, where big league coaches attend to provide instruction and look to aid development of the sport around the globe. A two-way player at the time, Kovala faced off the best players from Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands -- countries that historically have had more impressive national programs than the Czech Republic's.

"They were all bigger and taller than me," Kovala said. "I was like, 'Dang, I've got a lot of work to do.'"

While he may have the stuff of a star, Kovala stands just 5-foot-10 and weighs just 175 lbs -- and that's after years of dedicated focus. Earlier in his career he was light enough that a strong enough breeze might knock him off the mound. He came to the United States in 2020 and enrolled at Combine Academy in North Carolina, weighing in at a whopping 135 pounds.

"My pitching coach was like, 'You need to give up hitting and [being a] position player. You need to gain about 40 pounds, then you're gonna throw 90-plus and you're gonna dominate on the mound."

He's bulked up considerably and added an extra five ticks on his fastball before Perfect Game released its rankings last March. While he's been unable to eat his mother's svíčková, a traditional Czech comfort food featuring beef, a creamy brown sauce, cranberries and potato dumplings, he has helped himself to the south's cult favorite fast food restaurant, Cook Out.

"I was eating literally everything, getting about two Cook Outs a day," Kovala said, a smile spreading across his face. " A couple milkshakes, couple protein shakes. There's a lot of calories per day."

He's also watched Major Leaguers with similar builds, finding comfort in knowing that you don't need to be a towering giant to succeed on the sport's highest stage.

"I just love [Marcus] Stroman," Kovala said, paying close attention to him after watching him pitch in the 2017 Classic. "I started following his Twitter and he was always talking about how it's your heart, not about your size. That just inspired me to keep working because I used to always be the smallest guy everywhere I went. That inspired me to pursue my passion."

Kovala will join Georgia Tech in the fall and he hopes he can continue to surprise people all the way to the pros. He dreams that in the future, young kids from the Czech Republic will see him pitch on a big league mound and know that they, too, can reach the Major Leagues.

"I had a couple of kids text me like, 'I want to go to America, too.' And that just puts a smile on my face because I know I'm that stepping stone."