Australia at the Baseball World Cup

 Australia
Baseball World Cup
Amateur World Series
Italy Italy, 1978 9th
Japan Japan, 1980 7th
South Korea South Korea, 1982 9th
World Cup
Nicaragua Nicaragua, 1994 9th
Italy Italy, 1998 7th
Taiwan Taiwan, 2001 10th
Netherlands Netherlands, 2005 9th
Taiwan Taiwan, 2007 6th
European Union Europe, 2009 5th

The Australia national baseball team has participated in nine of the International Baseball Federation World Cup tournaments. Australia has made it to the quarter finals of a tournament three times—1998, 2007 and 2009— and its best result was in the most recent tournament held in 2009, in which Australia placed 5th.

Netherlands, 2005

The 2005 tournament was hosted by the Netherlands. It consisted of a round-robin series conducted in two pools from which the top four teams in each pool qualified for the quarter-finals. Australia finished 5th in its pool, failing to qualify after finishing with a 4–4 record.

Taiwan, 2007

Australia's performance in the 2007 World Cup was their best ever. They finished 6th and outscored their opponents 61–29 while accumulating a 7–3 record over the course of the tournament, held in Taiwan. Trent Oeltjen was the tournament leader in runs scored (12), stolen bases (7) and batting average (.523), earning him a spot on the All Star team named at the end of the tournament.[1]

Despite the game being shortened to seven innings by the mercy rule, Australia broke the World Cup record for runs scored when they beat Thailand 26–1. The game was also significant in that two position players combined to pitch the final four innings: third baseman Gavin Fingleson threw three innings to record the win, while first baseman Brett Roneberg threw the final inning. Finishing 6th for the tournament earned Australia an automatic berth in the 2009 World Cup.

Europe, 2009

In September, Australia was one of 22 nations that sent a team to the 2009 World Cup, which was held in seven different countries across Europe.[2] For the first round they were drawn in Pool A, held in Prague, Czech Republic, and competed against Chinese Taipei, Mexico and the hosts Czech Republic.[3] Only a few days after selecting their 24 player squad, Australia was forced to find a replacement for Justin Huber—one of the two players selected with Major League experience—as he was called up from AAA Rochester Red Wings to MLB Minnesota Twins. James Linger was selected as his replacement, making his Australian senior team debut.[4]

First round

Australia started its campaign with a win in the opening game of the tournament against their first round hosts, Czech Republic.[5] Winning 17–4, one of the highlights was Timothy Kennelly hitting a home run and then a 3-run home run in his first two at bats.[6] Both he and his brother Matthew Kennelly made their national team debut in the game.[7] Following a rest day, Australia faced Chinese Taipei and won 7–5.[8] Australia's hitting was led by Timothy Kennelly another 3-run home run in the third inning to make the score 4–0 (in addition to an outfield assist from right field to save a run in the sixth inning), and James Beresford hitting a 2-run shot in the eighth inning to break the tie and score what would turn out to be the winning runs.[9] This win, combined with Mexico's defeat of Czech Republic assured Australia's progression through to the second round, and determining that their second round play (as well as any further play beyond the second round that they were to qualify for) would be in Italy.[10][11] In their final game of the first round Australia lost to Mexico 10–9.[12] Given that both teams had already qualified not only for the second round, but would both be playing in the same pool for the round, only momentum into the next round—and their next match in a potentially deciding final game of the pool—was on the line.

Second round

Finishing second in their first round pool, Australia qualified for the second round to play in Pool G. Apart from their hosts Italy, the other teams to qualify for Pool G were Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles and defending champions United States.

Despite being ranked behind five of the teams in its pool on the IBAF World Rankings at the time,[13] Australia finished the round with a 5–2. This tied with Canada and Chinese Taipei, and with the tiebreakers used in the tournament, meant Australia was second, behind only the United States.[14] The Australians compiled a mercy rule victory over the Netherlands Antilles,[15] victories over world No. 3 Japan,[16] world No. 7 Mexico,[17] world No. 8 Canada,[18] and hosts and world No. 15 Italy,[19] while their only defeats were by one run each at the hands of world No. 4 United States[20] and world No. 5 Chinese Taipei.[21]

Final round

Panama, 2011

Australia is scheduled to participate in the 2011 tournament in Panama, to be held in October 2011. They will in the same pool for the first round of as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Germany, Italy, Nicaragua, South Korea, and Venezuela.[27]

Overall record

Australian World Cup Record by opponent
(Since 1998)
Opponent Tournaments
met		 W–L
record		 Largest victory Largest defeat Current
streak
Score Tournament Score Tournament
 Canada 5 4–1 7–0 Panama 2011 7–6 Taiwan 2007 W2
 Chinese Taipei 3 2–2 6–3 Italy 1998 11–4 Netherlands 2005 L1
 Colombia 1 1–0 5–1 Netherlands 2005 – W1
 Cuba 4 0–4 – 14–0 (F/7) Panama 2011 L4
 Czech Republic 2 2–0 14–0 (F/7) Netherlands 2005 – W2
 Dominican Republic 2 2–0 9–2 Italy 1998 – W2
 Germany 2 2–0 9–6 Panama 2011 – W2
 Italy 3 1–2 5–4 Italy 2009 7–0 Panama 2011 L1
 Japan 4 1–4 5–0 Italy 2009 8–0 Taiwan 2001 W1
 Mexico 2 2–1 7–1 Taiwan 2007 10–9 Czech Republic 2009 W1
 Netherlands 5 3–3 4–1 Italy 2009 6–0 Taiwan 2001 L1
 Netherlands Antilles 1 1–0 19–6 (F/7) Italy 2009 – W1
 Nicaragua 3 2–1 9–2 Italy 1998 2–0 Netherlands 2005 W1
 Panama 2 1–1 5–4 (F/8) Panama 2011 8–2 Taiwan 2001 L1
 Philippines 1 1–0 13–0 (F/7) Taiwan 2001 – W1
 Puerto Rico 2 1–1 4–2 Netherlands 2005 4–2 Italy 2009 L1
 Russia 2 2–0 6–2 Italy 1998 – W2
 South Korea 3 3–2 7–2 Italy 1998 8–0 Panama 2011 W1
 Spain 1 1–0 8–0 Netherlands 2005 – W1
 Thailand 1 1–0 26–1 (F/7) Taiwan 2007 – W1
 United States 4 0–4 – 8–5 Italy 1998 L4
 Venezuela 3 2–1 15–0 (F/5) Panama 2011 9–4 Italy 2009 W1
Overall 6 35–27 Against  THA Against  CUB W2
26–1 (F/7) Taiwan 2007 14–0 (F/7) Panama 2011

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Baseball World Cup: Allstar Team". Mister-Baseball.com. 19 November 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  2. ↑ "2009 Baseball World Cup: Australia". International Baseball Federation. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  3. ↑ "IBAF Finalizes Groups for First Round of 2009 Baseball World Cup". International Baseball Federation. 19 October 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  4. ↑ Sedgman, Cassandra (8 September 2009). "James Linger off to 2009 World Cup". Australian Baseball Federation. Retrieved 10 September 2009.
  5. ↑ "2009 World Cup Game Schedule – 1st Round" (PDF). International Baseball Federation. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  6. 1 2 "Australia v Czech Republic (Sep 09, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 9 September 2009. Retrieved 10 September 2009.
  7. ↑ Sedgman, Cassandra (10 September 2009). "Australian Bats Damaging in First-Up Win Over Czechs". Australian Baseball Federation. Retrieved 10 September 2009.
  8. 1 2 "Chinese Taipei v Australia (Sep 11, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 11 September 2009. Archived from the original on 18 October 2009. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
  9. ↑ Sedgman, Cassandra (12 September 2009). "Australian Defeats Chinese Taipei – Advances To Second Round". Australian Baseball Federation. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
  10. ↑ "2009 World Cup Game Schedule – 2nd Round" (PDF). International Baseball Federation. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  11. ↑ "2009 World Cup Game Schedule -Finals" (PDF). International Baseball Federation. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  12. 1 2 "Mexico vs Australia (Sep 12, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 12 September 2009. Archived from the original on 15 September 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  13. ↑ "IBAF World Rankings". International Baseball Federation. 12 August 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  14. ↑ "Second Round Standings, 2009 World Cup". International Baseball Federation. Archived from the original on 4 October 2009. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
  15. 1 2 "Netherlands Antilles vs Australia (Sep 13, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 13 September 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  16. 1 2 "Australia vs Japan (Sep 19, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 19 September 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
  17. 1 2 "Mexico vs Australia (Sep 20, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 20 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
  18. 1 2 "Australia vs Chinese Taipei (Sep 15, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 15 September 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
  19. 1 2 "Italy vs Australia (Sep 17, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 17 September 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
  20. 1 2 "Australia vs Mexico (Sep 21, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 21 September 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2009.
  21. 1 2 "Australia vs Canada (Sep 14, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 14 September 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
  22. ↑ "Australia v Cuba (Sep 22, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 22 September 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  23. ↑ "Netherlands v Australia (Sep 23, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 23 September 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  24. ↑ "Australia v Venezuela (Sep 24, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 24 September 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  25. ↑ "Puerto Rico v Australia (Sep 25, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 25 September 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  26. ↑ "Australia v Netherlands (Sep 26, 2009)". International Baseball Federation. 26 September 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
  27. ↑ "IBAF Baseball World Cup Groups Announced". International Baseball Federation. 10 June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011. 16 Teams will play from 2 to 15 October in Panama

External links

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