Group A: Sweden – Russia
Russia 000 010 000 1 7 4 Sweden 102 012 02X 8 11 1
Sweden won a key matchup of day-one losers in Group A of the European Championship on Saturday morning. At the stadium in Hoofddorp they beat Russia 8-1. They scored in five of their eight offensive innings and cruised to the victory. Russia only reached the scoreboard once in the fifth.
Joel Johnson opened the bottom half of the first with a leadoff double and came around to score on a single by Peter Johannessen. A RBI single by Matt Merrifield and a sac fly by Pontus Bystroem extended the advantage to 3-0 in the third.
Russia broke the shutout bid in the fifth when Maxim Monakhov scored on an error. However another Merrifield RBI single in the same frame regained the three-run lead. A pair of RBI singles by Johan Klarberg, an error and a RBI double by Leonard Baeckstroem sealed the win later on. Johnson and Baeckstroem scored three runs apiece.
On the mound Emil Sahlin conceded five hits, an unearned run and six walks in seven innings for the win. Bryan Berglund closed it out. Andrey Lobanov couldn’t provide the magic for Russia, surrendering nine hits, six runs (5 ER) and three base on balls in 5 2/3 frames to take the loss.