September 20, 2024
SENIOR LEAGUE BASEBALL WORLD SER

Childs helps South top Orono-Veazie Moscow edges Canada 4-1

BANGOR – What a difference a day made for both of the winning teams in the Pool A competition at the Senior League World Series.

European champ Moscow was no-hit by West champ Hilo, Hawaii, and South champ Chesterfield, Va., was two-hit by Canada on Monday, but both came back strong on Tuesday. Moscow knocked off Calgary, Alberta 4-1 and Chesterfield handed host team Orono-Veazie its first loss of the tourney, 5-1

Orono-Veazie, now 1-1, will play 1-1 Russia at 5 p.m. today after Calgary takes on Hilo at 10 a.m. Chesterfield is off.

Tuesday night, Chesterfield backed up a two-hitter by Will Childs with an efficient, seven-hit attack.

“The balls were kind of slick because of the wet ground, so I had to work on different release points for my breaking pitches, but after the first inning, I’d get ahead with my fastball and curve,” said Childs, who struck out nine hitters and walked just one. “Then I’d use a little slurve that sweeps across the plate and that really helped me out.”

Chesterfield scored first in the game with two unearned runs in the third. Lance Firebaugh got things started with a single up the middle and was sacrificed to second with a bunt. Matt Reed’s grounder up the middle was snared by pitcher Kevin McAvoy, who looked Firebaugh back to third only to throw high over first. The three-base error scored Firebaugh. Reed then scored on Shaun McEnhimer’s shallow sacrifice fly to center.

“I think the team got down after that and didn’t bounce back the way I thought they would have,” said Orono-Veazie coach Jay Otis. “The bottom line is we have to start hitting.”

Orono-Veazie got one of the runs back in the fourth as hustling McAvoy reached on an error, stole second, went to third on a wild throw, and scored on Hunter Umphrey’s two-out single to right center.

Chesterfield got the run back and then some in the fifth. Reed and McEnhimer started off with back-to-back singles and Matt Brown smoked a 1-0 fastball to the center field warning track for a one-out, two-run double. He took third as the throw missed the cutoff man and scored on a Childs’ groundout.

Tuesday afternoon, the task loomed as a tall one for Moscow as Calgary had recorded back-to-back solid pitching outings and appeared especially geared toward exploiting Russia’s weakness.

So much for scouting reports. The Russians not only got their first hits of the series, they outhit the Canadians 9-3.

Moscow manager Mikhail Fornev blames the turnaround on jet lag.

“The last game, it was our first game with eight hours’ difference,” he explained. “I think these two days helped us be more like ourselves.”

Moscow got two hits in the first inning, but failed to score. In the third, shortstop Maxim Poliakov started a three-hit run with one out by singling to right. He went to third on Dmitri Kondrashov’s double down the right field line and scored on Ivan Kornev’s single. Artem Chtcherbakov scored Kondrashov with a sacrifice fly to center.

Russia tacked on a run in the fifth. Poliakov led off with a walk, went to second on a bunt, and scored on a shortstop fielding error. Canada avoided more damage with a double play.

The lead swelled to 4-0 in the seventh after Poliakov (3-for-3) again got things going with a double to right center. He went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Kondrashov’s sacrifice fly to right.

Calgary got a runner as far as third in the sixth, but Kondrashov got out of the one-out jam with two straight flyouts.

Calgary finally cracked the scoreboard in the seventh. Mike O’Brien hit a two-out single to right center and a shortstop throwing error put runners at first and second, prompting Fornev to replace Kondrashov with Ivan Kornev. Kornev walked his first batter to load the bases before a fielding error at first allowed O’Brien to score. Dave Groce tried to score from second on the miscue, but first baseman Chtcherbakov recovered in time to throw a strike home and nail Groce at the plate to end the game.

Kondrashov allowed three hits and one walk in 6 2/3 innings for the win.

“My outside fastball worked and the location on my pitches was good outside,” he said. “I also had a good curveball.”

“We’ve been hitting the ball well, but the bats just weren’t going today,” said Calgary coach Al Price. “Their pitcher got a lot of ground balls and we chased lots of low ones today.”

EUROPE 4, CANADA 1

Moscow (1-1) Calgary (1-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Poliakov, ss 3 3 3 0 Toy, lf-cf-2b 3 0 0

Kondrasov,p-cf 2 1 2 1 Price, ss 4 0

Kornev, cf-p 4 0 2 1 Copot, c 3 0 0

Chtcherbakov,1b 2 0 0 1 Verrier, 1b 3 0

Kapoustkine, 2b 2 0 0 0 Southwood, cf 2 0

Idankov, 2b 0 0 0 0 Stevenson, lf-cf 1 0

Grachev, lf 2 0 1 0 Sehlstrom, 3b 3 0 0

Kojevnikov, 3b 2 0 0 1 Matsumiya,2b 1 0

a-Ponomarev 1 0 1 0 Bahry, lf 1 0 0

Paimoukhin, rf 3 0 0 1 O’Brien, rf-p 3 0

Vorotilin, c 2 0 0 0 Flynn, p 1 0 0

Belyev, c 1 0 0 0 Adamson, rf 1 0 0

Grose, rf 1 0 0 0

Totals 24 4 9 3 Totals 27 1 5 0

a-doubled for Kojevnikov in fourth

Moscow 002 010 1 ? 4

Calgary 000 000 1 ? 1

E?Poliakov 2, Chtcherbakov, Grachev; Price, Sehlstrom; LOB?Moscow 6, Calgary 7; 2B?Poliakov, Kondrashov, Ponomarev; DP?Poliakov-Chtcherbakov; Matsumiyah-Price-Verrier; S?Kondrashov 2; SF?Kondrashov, Chtcherbakov

Moscow IP H R ER BB SO

Flynn (L,0-1) 3 5 2 2 1 0

O’Brien 4 4 2 1 2 1

Calgary IP H R ER BB SO

Kondrashov (W,1-0) 6 2/3 3 1 0 1 3

Kornev (S,1) 1/3 0 0 0 1 0

WP?Kondrashov, Kornev; O’Brien; T?12:13; ATT?109

SOUTH 5, MAINE 1

(Tuesday night)

Maine (1-1) South (2-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Otis, 2b 3 0 0 0 Reed, ss 4 2 0

Roach, lf 3 0 0 0 McEnhimer, rf 2 1 1

McAvoy, p 2 1 0 0 b-Marshall, rf-pr 0 0

Thomas, c 3 0 1 0 Childress, lf 3 0 0

Keefe, ss 3 0 0 0 Brown, 1b 3 1 2

Umphrey, 3b 3 0 1 1 Childs, p 3 0 1

Hardy, 3b 0 0 0 0 Byrd, 3b 2 0 0

Patterson, 2b 3 0 0 0 T.Firebaugh, 3b 0 0

Davis, rf 1 0 0 0 Ullom, c 2 0 0

Peasley, rf 1 0 0 0 c-Burgwyn 1 0 0

Tardiff, cf 1 0 0 0 L.Firebaugh,cf 3 1 0

a-Green 1 0 0 0 Richardson, 2b 2 0 0

Totals 24 1 2 1 Totals 25 5 7 4

a-grounded out for Tardiff in fifth, b-ran for Brown in fifth, c-flied out for Ullom in sixth, ran for Byrd in fourth

Maine 000 100 0 ? 1 2 2

South 002 030 x ? 5 7 2

E?McAvoy, Keefe, Tardiff; Reed, Ullom; LOB?Maine 3, South 5; 2B?Brown; SH?Richardson; SF?McEnhimer; SB?McAvoy; Reed, Childress

Maine IP H R ER BB SO

McAvoy (L, 0-1) 6 7 5 2 1 4

South IP H R ER BB SO

Childs (W, 1-0) 7 2 1 0 1 11

WP?McAvoy; T?1:46; ATT?1,275

Correction: A shorter version of this article ran in the State edition.

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