Youth Park/Taipei City. Russia celebrated its second win at the II 12U Baseball World Cup. On Thursday afternoon at Youth Park they defeated Hong Kong 2-1 thanks to a walk-off RBI single by Vladislav Nikolaev in the bottom of the sixth. For both teams it was the last game of the tournament, as they missed out on the top four in the Group B standings.
It was a tight ball game at Youth Park between the two underdogs. Russia struck first in the second inning, when Vladislav Nikolaev scored from third on a throwing error by the shortstop. Hong Kong came back in the fifth. Lok Yin Chan singled, stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch to make it 1-1. In the bottom of the sixth, when most of the people already thought there will be extra innings, Pavel Demidov scored the game-winner on Nikolaev’s walk-off single.
Nikolaev not only singled in the decisive second run, but also pitched two innings of relief to pick up the win. Artem Logunov had pitched four scoreless innings to start the game. Tsz Yin Jordan Wen got charged with the loss for Hong Kong, his third in the event.
