Banged-up Moscow outlasts Bangor Russians earn first WS victory

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BANGOR – Anyone believing baseball isn’t a contact sport should have seen the Russian players after Wednesday’s Senior League World Series game against Bangor.

The locker room looked more like a makeshift field hospital as one player had a possible broken nose after being drilled by a thrown baseball, another was still limping slightly from a line drive off his shin, and still another left the game with a leg injury after a collision at second base.

But the members of team Moscow were all smiles as afternoon sun turned to dusk because each of them had a hand in the first World Series baseball win by a Russian team.

Moscow benefited from five Bangor errors with six unearned runs en route to a 10-8 victory over Maine’s District 3 champions, now 0-3. Moscow (1-2) takes on Boynton Beach, Fla., at 10 a.m. Thursday while Bangor meets 3-0 San Pedro, Calif., at 5 p.m.

Bangor starter Brian Hackett was tagged for his second loss in two days, but deserved a better fate after pitching five innings of nine-hit, two-walk, 10-strikeout ball.

“We just couldn’t put it together defensively. Brian pitched well enough to win,” said Bangor co-coach Dave Utterback. “We just didn’t help him defensively at all. We’ve never gone this long and made so many errors.”

Bangor’s defense also offset its most productive offensive game as it outhit Moscow 14-9.

Despite Bangor’s batting barrage and taking a hard line drive off his shin in the first inning, Russian starter Ivan Kornev stuck it out, throwing 140 pitches for the complete-game win.

“My biggest was over 150 in a game so this was not rare for me,” said Kornev, whose smiling face showed no signs of the pain his leg was causing him.

“It’s a good feeling because we are only in a World Series the first time,” he added. “We are first team in Russia to win a World Series [game].”

Kornev relied almost exclusively on his fastball as he threw just 73 pitches for strikes, struck out one batter, and walked four, but it was enough.

Despite his struggles, Moscow coaches Andrey Selivanov and Alexandre Volkov never considered taking him out.

“No. We don’t have any more pitchers to use,” Selivanov explained. “The guys are asking him if he can throw just to win.

“He’s thrown much better than this, but all the guys appreciate him.”

Kornev also did it with the bat. He was one of three batters with two hits as he doubled and singled. The key hit of the game belonged to Artem Chtcherbakov, who blasted a 1-0 fastball to the fence in left-center for a three-run double in Moscow’s five-run third inning. Only one of those runs was earned as Bangor had back-to-back throwing errors with one out.

Moscow added another run in the fourth to go up 7-4, but Bangor retook the lead with four runs on four hits in its half of the fourth. Josh Young had the key hit as he singled for two of his three RBIs.

Moscow pulled ahead for good in the sixth as Nikita Tokarev, Kornev, and Maxim Shabanov led off with a single, double, and two-run single respectively. Sergey Karmushov’s sacrifice fly scored Shabanov. Another error prolonged the inning and resulted in another unearned run.

“No matter what team it is, if you keep giving a team four or five outs an inning, they’re going to take advantage of it,” Utterback said. “Russia was scrappy and they did what they had to do to get the job done.”

MOSCOW 10, BANGOR 8

Moscow, Russia (1-2) Bangor (0-3)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Aizatouline, cf 2 0 0 0 Heath, ss 4 0

Zitarev, cf 3 1 0 0 N. LaRochelle, 2b 3 0

Tokarev, ss 3 2 1 0 Hall, lf 4 0 1

Kornev, p 4 3 2 0 Young, 1b 4 1 3

Shabanov, 3b 4 2 1 2 Toomey, 3b 1 1 1

Karmushov, c 2 1 2 1 Woodcock, 3b 2 0 1

Chtcherbakov,1b 4 0 1 3 Anderson, p 1 0

Piliya, lf 4 0 2 0 Dowe, c 2 0 1 0

Maksinov, 2b 2 0 0 0 Willette, c 1 0 0

Kondrashov, rf 2 0 0 0 Hackett, p-3b 4 1

Kashiv, rf 1 0 0 0 DeRosa, rf 3 0 0

Maxiakov, rf 1 1 0 0 Gallant, rf 1 0 0

Heber, cf 1 0 0 0

M. LaRochelle, cf 2 1 0

Totals 32 10 9 6 Totals 33 8 14 7

Moscow 105 103 0 ? 10

Bangor 310 400 0 ? 8

E?Shabanov, Chtcherbakov, Maksinov; Toomey 2, N. LaRochelle, Young, Woodcock; LOB?Moscow 6; Bangor 10; 2B?Kornev, Chtcherbakov; Heath; DP?Tokarev-Maksinov-Chtcherbakov; S?Maksinov; Hall; SF?Karmushov; SB?Chtcherbakov, Maksinov

Moscow IP H R ER BB SO

Kornev (W,1-0) 7 14 8 8 4 1

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Hackett (L,0-2) 5 9 10 4 2 10

Anderson 2 0 0 0 0 2

HBP?Tokarev by Hackett; N. LaRochelle by Kornev; WP?Hackett; Kornev; T?2:26; ATT?1,200 (est.)