News Archive Estonia
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 |10:22 |Age: 2 yrs
Finland – Estonia friendship games
Category: 
Estonia’s Kiili Pantrid hosted Finland’s youth team in the southern part of Tallinn on Sunday, March 27. The game was the return leg of games between Estonia and Finland this winter. The field was an artificial-turf bubble hall and the conditions were excellent for this fun and action-packed game. While pitching dominated on both sides, there were a number of well-hit balls and good defensive plays by both teams. Pantrid starting pitcher Kristjan Ojasaar dominated in his 3 innings of pitching, striking out 8 and giving up only 1 hit and 1 run. Finland’s first 2 pitchers, Markus Jones and Valentin Sarjanen, combined for 11 strike outs and gave up 5 runs in their 4 innings of work. Finland had four hits on the day, a 2nd inning double by Atte Reinikka, and singles by Olli Åberg in the 6th and Mohamed Muhandes in the 7th but the offensive highlight was Samuli Graves’ bases-loaded triple to right-center in the 5th inning giving Finland its first and only lead. Pantrid’s Kevin Kiil was strong at catcher, throwing out 2 runners and also pitched well later in the game. In the end Pantrid’s strengths of speed on the bases and solid defense proved too much as they pulled away in the last couple innings and won the 7-inning game 12-8.
Finland was much improved in all areas of the game from the previous meeting in December and their confidence showed well on the field. Coaches Tauno Koppel and Mika Sarjanen have expressed interest in continuing this cooperation and hope to expand youth baseball activities in the Baltic region.
Saturday evening it was the adults’ turn as the Espoo Expos played a practice game against the Kiili Pantrid at the same location in Tallinn. After starting off slow against the Expos’ pitcher Ville-Hermann Saarman and being behind 0-5 after the 3rd inning Pantrid got back into the game off of Vahur Põder’s deep double to right-center field in the 4th inning scoring Pantrid’s first run of the game. In the final inning with the Expos in the lead 6-5 Pantrid was able to load the bases and bring in the tying run from third bases off an infield-fly double play, when the runner from second was caught off the base. Kristjan Kruus stole second base on the next pitch with Vahur Põder at bat and on the very next pitch Põder looped a ball just over the shortstop’s reach and scored Kruus for the winning run.
