Game Number 9Ireland v Lithuania - Stockholm 2002
Game filesGame: Ireland v Lithuania
Tournament: European Championships Stockholm, Sweden 2002
Game type: Group Game
Venue: Stockholm
Score: 9-8
Irish starter: Brian Morris
The second game of our Stockholm Experience in 2002. We had lost 8-4 to the powerful, experienced Austrian side in the first game but had played well and had high expectations coming into this game against the always tough Lithuanians. The game was notable as big Brian Morris's first start for Ireland.
An excerpt from my book on Irish Baseball:
''..Wednesday brought the Lithuanians who had pummelled the Finns the day before 22-2. A serious shellacking. Ireland sent to the mound big right-hander Brian Morris. Brian warmed up before the game in the far bullpen on his own, pacing around like a tiger, looking slightly psycho and no doubt psyching the Lithuanians out of it a little before he’d even thrown one hard fastball. PJ asked Mick to go down and catch for him and Mick just looked at PJ like he was crazy, almost saying, ‘what, send me down to THAT psycho?’
We got off to an amazing start, bashing in seven runs in the first off a shell shocked Lithuanian side who apparently had taken their foot off the gas from the day before. Brian took the mound and impressed from the first inning. Everything he threw was down and hard. He had movement, location and velocity. However, Lithuania did just enough to hang around. They chipped away and it was 7-6 going into the ninth. We added another to give Brian a two run lead and he needed it, but escaped and we had a dramatic 8-7 win to really kick-start our tournament.''
Coming soon! Game number 8!
So far...
9. Ireland v Lithuania - Stockholm 2002
10. Ireland v Serbia-Montenegro - Germany 2004
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