Baseball: Israel beats Russia to open European Championship

• Author: DANNY GROSSMAN
• Published date: 13 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Ace pitcher Joey Wagman led the way by holding the Russians to one run over eight innings of brilliant 3-hit ball, keeping the Blue and White in contention. Wagman made only one mistake, hanging a curveball to slugger Solar Geides who doubled home David Castillo to put the Russians up 1-0 in the fourth. "Wags" quickly bore down, by stranding Geides in scoring position as he retired the next two hitters to end the inning. He then shut down the Russians the rest of the way without allowing a hit and ringing up a total of seven strikeouts.

Wagman's gutty performance set the stage for Israel's veteran players to even the score in the bottom of the sixth by pushing across a hard-earned run. Former Mets infielder Ty Kelly lined a one-out single to left field and then advanced to third on center-fielder Rob Paller's sharp single to right. This brought up Mitch Glasser, who had led all Israeli players in the recent Tokyo Olympics with a hefty .412 batting average.

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Glasser had already stung starter Andrei Lubanov by breaking up the Russian's no-hitter with a solid single to left in the fourth. This time, however, Glasser brought Kelly home with the "Ty-ing" run by executing "small ball" to perfection. Mitch laid down a textbook sacrifice bunt dictated by Israeli manager Nate Fish, who was leading Team Israel for the first time since taking over after the Olympic campaign.

The tension mounted as both sides put up goose eggs the rest of the way. Manager Fish made yet another tough decision by replacing Wagman going into the ninth. The Russians quickly put runners on second and third with a single and an Israeli miscue of a sacrifice bunt. Unflappable reliever David "DJ" Sharabi got a tough out with the infield drawn in.

Fish then made yet another gutsy move by loading the bases with an intentional walk and bringing in Israel's newest player, fireballer Charles "Bubby" Rossman. In his first appearance for Team Israel, the new immigrant from California rewarded his manager's confidence by inducing an inning-ending double play.

Israel failed to score in the bottom of the ninth, setting up an extra-inning nail-biter. In accordance with international rules, geared to prevent long games, the 10th frame begins by...