Consolation Round 9th to 12th: Russia – Greece
Greece 200 100 000 3 12 1 Russia 000 000 010 1 6 0
Greece is remaining in contention to stay in the A-Pool of the European Championship. On Thursday morning the Greek team of head coach Ivan Rodriguez defeated Russia 3-1 in the first game of the 9th to 12th consolation round. It was the first win for Greece in the tournament. Both teams are now 1-1 in the consolation phase.
Dimitrios Kourtis gave Greece a head start into the game, when he doubled home two runs in the top of the first. They added one more run in the fourth through a sac fly by Thomas Lekas. This was enough for starting pitcher Jonathan Kountis. The right-hander conceded only six hits, an unearned run and two walks in nine innings to pick up the win. He struck out nine in the complete game.
Russia only was able to break through once in the match thanks to a RBI double by Nikita Monakhov in the eighth. Andrey Lobanov (5 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 4 SO) and Anton Kuznetsov kept their team in the game, but the offense didn’t find a way to get past Kountis settling for the loss.