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Russia starts to play ball with defeat of Philippines

With Russia's first Baseball World Cup win recorded last night over the Philippines, Russian baseball has reached another milestone in its short history.

Given the incentive to develop the game because baseball is an Olympic sport, the then Soviet Union started its program from scratch in 1987 with the assistance of Cuban coaches.

The Russians made their first appearance in the World Cup three years ago in Italy and this year broke the stranglehold of the Netherlands and Italy on the top two places in the European Championships, finishing second -- even beating the Dutch 4-3 in round-robin play.

The win over the Philippines was even bigger, the Russians having to rally from a 6-4 deficit in the eighth inning to win 7-6.

"This is a very big win and a hard win because the Philippine team never gave up," said Russian manager Nikolai Guervassov.

"The win is even more satisfying because we really had to earn it."

Outfielder Stanislav Lemtyuzhnikov, who had the game-winning RBI, echoed his manager's sentiments.

"We prepared four years for the World Cup," he said.

"Then the Philippines went ahead. We brought all of our players together to re-group.

"We then came back won it. This victory is extremely important to our team."

"I think it is historic for them to climb up to this level and maintain it in the last couple of European Championships," said assistant coach Bob Protexter before the game.

Protexter, who has been working with the team since 1988, said a lot has changed since the old Soviet Union took up the sport.

"At that point if you saw a Russian or Soviet baseball player you could say that's a Soviet athlete playing baseball.

"Now, if you see a Russian baseball player, you could say that they were from Canada, the US, or Australia. They have a more fluid movement," said Protexter.

"You'll mistake a better player as coming from somewhere else rather than from Russia. You won't see a stereotypical, stiff Soviet style -- no suntan, big muscles coming out of nowhere. You don't see that on the baseball field."

What you do see is more players like Oleg Korneev, who is a big pitcher with big league experience.

Korneev, who is on the Russian team in Taiwan, signed with the Seattle Mariners earlier this year.

Korneev pitched one inning this year with the Mariners' affiliate in the rookie-level Arizona League.

The Monday blues

Although light rain has hit some games in the tournament, none have been postponed because of rain.

With all games scheduled games completed so far, teams will get to enjoy today's scheduled day off.

The tournament resumes tomorrow with round-robin games.
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