DUBAI: The Mumbai Cobras beat the Karachi Monarchs 9-2 on Sunday to secure the first regular season series in Baseball United’s history.
Akshay More, the first-ever professional Indian starting pitcher had a dream debut, pitching three solid innings and allowing only one hit. More also struck out three batters.
Saurabh Gaikwad, who relieved his countryman on the mound, worked for 0.2 innings, with both outs as strikeouts. Tushar Lalwani, born in Mumbai, worked the last two innings of the game flawlessly, allowing only one hit and striking out one.
Brantley Bell went two-for-four with a double, a triple, two runs scored and two runs batted in, while Caleb McNeely (2-for-3, 1 RBI, 2 R) hit a solo home run to right field, to lead an early attack.
Miguel Ojeda had a second consecutive explosive night, after coming in as a pinch hitter to hit a three-run home run against Alex DuBord’s pitches, to close the seventh inning with a killer five-run attack.
Other highlights:
- Both starters represented the first pitching duel between players born in India and Finland in the history of professional baseball. Konsta Kurikka, Monarchs’ starter, had 2.1 innings pitched, with six hits, four runs, all of them earned, two walks, two strikeouts and one home run allowed, to bear the defeat.
- Lou Helmig (1-for-3, 2 RBIs) and Ian Mercado (2-for-3) were the rest of the architects of Mumbai’s explosive offense.
- The victory was completed by Chase Gearing in a fantastic relief performance, after 3.1 IP, in which he allowed only one hit, one earned run, gave three walks and struck out one opponent.
