Lithuania Baseball Week 3/Updates

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As summer arrives, time seems to be moving faster and faster. A week flies by, seeming like just a few days.

A few interesting events regarding Lithuanian Baseball:

May 28-June 5: Sam Dempster, a Major League Baseball Envoy Coach, will be giving baseball clinics to youth ages 13-18 in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Utena, Lithuania. This is an exciting 'first' for Lithuanian Baseball, to host an MLB coach. We hope it will be a great experience both for the visiting coach and for the players involved.

June 8-24th: Kaunas Lituanica Baseball Club travels to the US!!! We will be playing against semi-pro teams in Chicago as well as in Davenport, Iowa!! We will be playing an 8-game schedule, seeing two Chicago White Sox games, and getting to visit Chicago! This will be the first trip to the US for about half of our team.

Lithuanian Players playing in Sweden, England: There are currently three Lithuanian players playing for clubs in other European Clubs. Vilnius Dulcinskas (Kaunas Lituanica) and Eimantas Zickus (Vilnius Black Vikings) are both playing for a first-division club in Sweden, while Marius Urbanaviciaus (Kaunas Lituanica) plays for a second-division club in England. Eimantas Zickus is currently 2-0 to start the season for the First-Division Swedish Club. The news is that no one in Sweden knows how to hit against lefty pitchers, and Eimantas, a lefty, has thus far baffled them with his bizarre release, tailing fastball and curveball.

Below are updates of last weekend's games in the Lithuanian Championship. for full results, boxscores, and stats, go to: www.beisbolas.lt

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Win number 5 for ‘Lituanica’

Kaunas stretched their Lithuanian Championship record to a clean 5-0 on Saturday, defeating Utena Vetra 9:4 in what was their most contested win of the season. The game was held close with little offensive production on either side, with the score tied 4-4 entering the 7th inning. Utena’s ace Dalius Neliupsis was on the mound and for most of the game was able to keep Kaunas’ hitters in check, until Kaunas broke the game open with a 4-run 9th inning extending the lead to 9-4. Will Gordon started for Kaunas Lituanica with Marius Dargus coming in to pitch in the 7th inning and closing out the game, earning the save.
Utena and Lituanica went punch for punch most of the game on the offensive end it was Kaunas’ 9th Inning rally that gave them the edge (Kaunas 13 hits, Utena 9).

Saturday’s Leading hitters: Kaunas: M. Dargis (3-5, 2RBI, R), W. Gordon (2-4, RBI, 2R)
Utena: Darius Kviklys (2-4, RBI, SB), D. Putramentas (2-4, RBI)

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Vilnius Logipolija outlasted by Vikings: drop two in similar fashion

The Vikings won a pair of hard-fought games against Vilnius Logipolija this fourth weekend of the Lithuanian Championship. Game 1 featured Edvardas Matusevicius as the starter for Logipolija. Matusevicius churned out his best start of the season, showing increased velocity and poise on the mound even as he entered into the later innings. Matusevicius went 7 innings giving up only 4 hits and one run against the reigning Lithuanian Champs, Juodasis Vikingas, before being replaced by player/coach Virmidas Neverauskas in the 8th Inning. The Vikings brought home 5 runs in the 8th innings, four of them being scored against Neverauskas.
On the other side, Rolandas Santaras started on the mound for the Black Vikings and led their offence going 2-5 with a run and 2 RBI’s. The final score was 6-4.

Sunday’s game 2 had a similar flair to game 1. V. Neverauskas was the starting pitcher this time going successful thru 7 innings before (again) giving up five runs in the 8th , a total that could have been less if not for two key 8th inning errors by the Vilnius defense.
R. Santaras again started for Vilnius on the mound, with Evaldas Remeika pitching the final innings; the duo allowed only 2 runs on four hits and recorded 6 strikeouts over 9 innings. The final was 7-2.

E. Remeika is a new addition to the Black Vikings this year, leaving Logipolija and joining the Black Vikings for the 2009 season. He has been a boost both on the mound (since Vikingas lost their top two pitchers from last season’s championship run) as well as at 3rd base.
Offensive Leaders: Vikingas: D. Jacevicius (2-2, R, 2 RBI, SB), E. Remeika (3-6, 2B, R, 2 RBI, SB), H. Kucinskas (2-2, R).
Logipolija: M. Stravinskas (3-3).

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