Mário Gottschall

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 205 lb.

• Born August 10, 1998 in Bratislava Slovakia

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Mário Gottschall has played in the Extraliga and for the Slovakian national team.

Gottschall was 1 for 6 for Slovakia in the 2014 European Championship U21. He made it to the senior national team by age 16, appearing in the 2015 B-Level European Championship. He was 1 for 6 with a run and fielded .889, playing fairly regularly at second base. Playing for Apollo Bratislava in the 2016 Federations Cup, he hit .118/.211/.118 and handled 28 chances error-free as their main catcher.

At the 2017 B-Level European Championship, he batted .389/.476/.611 and fielded .935. He was second on Slovakia in average and OBP (behind Michal Ešmír) and in slugging (behind Martin Lukačka). He homered off Ukraine's Serhii Shtapura. He hit .286/.348/.333 in the 2017 European Championship U23.

Like many Slovakian stars, he went to play in the Czech Extraliga, signing with Technika Brno for 2018. He hit .274/.327/.379 in his age-19 season, leading the team with three dingers. In 2019, he batted .301/.350/.441 with a team-high three homers and 14 RBI. Only Richard Sázavský hit better for them. He was back behind the dish for Slovakia in the 2019 B-Level European Championship, producing at a .250/.333/.313 clip with four RBI in five games.

For Brno in 2020, he fell to .218/.237/.364, splitting the catching with Robert Regner. In '21, he moved to Jablonec Blesk. As a 1B/C, he hit .357/.400/.429, second among the regulars in OPS. He was at .278/.316/.389 for Slovakia in the 2021 European Championship Qualifier, driving in five runs in four games. He tied Martin Brunegraf for the team lead in RBI as Slovakia won a spot in the European Championship for the first time.

In the 2021 European Championship, he hit third and caught in Slovakia's first game in a European Championship. He struck out against Lars Huijer of the title-bound Dutch national team in the first but singled off Jayden Gonesh in the 4th for the second Slovakian hit in the Euros, following one by Brunegraf. Two days later, he took the Czech national team's Radim Chroust deep in the first (with Brunegraf) aboard to make history as the first Slovakian to homer in a European Championship - it was also the team's first two RBIs, as they were shut out the first two games. He kept going after that, getting another hit that day then three versus Austria, two versus Ukraine and two against France (his double off Gédéon Coste scored Tomáš Biskorovájny to give the team a 2-1 lead in the 15th/16th place game; the newcomers fell, 6-5). He finished at .400/.423/.600 with five RBI in six games, while fielding .971 and allowing four steals in four tries. He led Slovakia in hits (two ahead of Brunegraf), doubles (2), homers (their only dinger), RBI (one ahead of Biskorovájny), total bases (15, 6 ahead of Brunegraf), average (tied with Daniel Just; among qualifiers, he was up by .067), OBP (tied Biskorovájny for first among qualifiers), slugging (Jakub Ižold was next at .417) and OPS. For the Euros as a whole, he tied for 5th in hits (trailing Edison Valerio, Oscar Angulo, Sharlon Schoop and Marek Chlup).