U.S. East rolls on to top EMEA

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BANGOR – If there was any concern for the U.S. East team Wednesday morning entering the resumption of Sunday night’s Senior League World Series Pool B game, it was that the defending champs from Freehold Township, N.J., would have lost some of their focus, especially with an 8-1 lead before rain suspended things Sunday.

But manager Charles Wilmot had nothing to worry about. The U.S. East team scored three more runs in the bottom of the third and another three in the bottom of the fifth, rolling to a 14-3 victory over the Europe-Middle East-Africa representative from Tbilisi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

“You have to come in really giving it your full concentration,” Wilmot said Wednesday morning. “All the teams have to fight to keep focused, and that was our focus today. Take care of the business at hand. Do what we can do.”

Both teams had games scheduled for later in the day, too. EMEA knocked off Latin America 2-1 in the afternoon game to move to 1-3 record. The East beat the U.S. Southwest team 12-2 Wednesday evening.

The U.S. East team took advantage of five EMEA errors overall, including three in Sunday night’s first inning. Six of New Jersey’s runs were earned.

The errors, plus eight walks allowed by Luke Gakhokidze, meant the U.S. East got by on only six hits. A.J. Rusbarsky was the East’s only repeat hitter with two singles, and Dominic Hayes had a two-run single in the third inning and an RBI groundout in the fourth.

EMEA had a combined 14 errors in its first three games.

John Whitley started the game Sunday night, but Wilmot opened with Ian MacLean Wednesday morning. MacLean allowed four hits and walked three while striking out three in 3 1/3 innings.

MacLean and reliever Mike Kinsella each had a strikeout in the top of the fifth as EMEA was trying to keep the game from ending early because of the 10-run rule.

The Tbilisi team scored twice in the fifth. One run came in on a wild pitch and Zura Chitishvili pushed across the other with an RBI single. David Mukhadze also tripled for EMEA.

Along with staying focused, Wilmot said his team had to keep in mind that the 8-1 score Sunday might not have been a true measure of the opposition because it was raining so hard.

“You can’t take anything for granted,” he said. “The [Georgia] team fights hard.”

U.S. EAST 14, EMEA 3

(Pool B, Wednesday morning)

Tbilsi, Georgia (0-3) Freehold Township, N.J. (1-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Tavadze, ss 2 1 1 0 Hayes, cf 4 2 3

Mukhadze, lf 3 1 2 0 Rusbarsky, ss 4 1 1

Chitishvili, c 2 1 1 1 Cuneo, 1b 4 1

Minesashvili, 3b 3 0 1 0 Nardi, rf 2 0

Telia, rf 2 0 1 0 Wilmot, 2b 0 2 0

Letodiani, 2b 2 0 0 0 Majewski, lf 1 1

Nikolashvili, cf 3 0 0 0 Cooney, 3b-lf 1 0

Razmadze, 1b 2 0 0 0 Baggitt, c 1 3 1

Gakhokidze, p 1 0 0 0 Kinsella, 3b 1 2

Archer, lf 1 1 0 0

Whitley, p 1 1 0 0

MacLean, p 1 0 0 1

Totals 20 3 6 1 Totals 21 14 6 10

EMEA 100 02 – 3

U.S. East 803 3x – 14

E-Chitishvili, Minesashvili 3, Telia; LOB-EMEA 7, U.S. East 4; 3B-Mukhadze; Cuneo; DP-MacLean-Rusbarsky-Cuneo; SB-Gakhokidze; Hayes, Wilmot, Cooney

EMEA IP H R ER BB SO

Gakhokidze (L, 0-2) 4 6 14 6 8 2

U.S. East IP H R ER BB SO

Whitley 1 1 1 1 2 3

MacLean (W, 1-0) 3 1/3 4 2 2 3 3

Kinsella 2/3 1 0 0 0 1

HBP-MacLean by Gakhokidze; WP-MacLean 4, Whitlet 4; BK-Gakhokidze; T-1:50; ATT-75 (est.)