Saturday, June 19:
(1-2) Dinamo Bucharest – North Stars 2-3, 1-10
The Russian club North Stars overcame a 0-1 deficit against Dinamo Bucharest in the best-of-three final series at the European Cup Qualifier in Brest, Belarus to win the tournament 2-1, qualifying for the European Cup Playoff in September. Dinamo had won the preliminary round game against the Stars on Wednesday, which already counted as game-one result in the final series.
In morning game on Saturday a RBI single by Ivan Kornev in the top of the ninth lifted the North Stars to a 3-2 win and the tie in the series. Kornev already had delivered a two-run single in the top of the seventh which put his team ahead for the first time. But Dinamo came back in the bottom of the eighth to even the score thanks to a RBI single by Mihai Georgescu. Earlier Bucharest led 1-0 since a RBI single by Dan Panaitescu in the third. Nikolay Lobanov (W 2-0) struck out 15 batters in nine innings, allowing six hits, two runs (1 ER) and three bb. Georgescu (L 2-1) took the loss after issuing three unearned runs on four hits in three innings of relief.
In the decisive third match of the North Stars crushed Dinamo Bucharest 10-1, securing the Qualifier win. Five runs in the bottom of the fifth blew things wide open. Sergey Solovev, Oleg Semenov and Dmitry Lukin combined to drive in seven of the ten runs. Nikolay Lobanov (W 3-0) started for a second time this day, giving up just three hits and a walk in five scoreless innings to lead the way on the mound. Georgescu (L 2-2) also took the mound again, but this time in the beginning, taking the loss after surrendering eight hits, seven runs (4 ER) and two bb in four-plus innings.
