World Cup - Day 13 - vs Germany

We did our part today by taking down Germany. We scored early and often in the first 3 innings, putting up 9 runs on 10 hits which was just a continuation on the hitting display we put on last night. Mitch Dening led the offence going 3 for 4, driving in a run and scoring 2 runs.

My room mate Clayton Tanner got the start tonight, although it wasn't his best day he still left the game giving us a chance to win, and that's all you can ask from your starting pitcher. Justin Erasmus threw a scoreless 5th innings then Hayden Beard took over for the 6th. He allowed an unearned run in the 6th, then gave up a 2 run home run to his Canberra Cavalry team mate Donald Lutz. So guess Donald knew Hayden's scouting report better then Hayden knew Donald's scouting report. We then sent out the ever reliable Andrew Russell to close out the game and preserve the victory, and then we played the waiting game.

After the game I caught up with my Elizabethton Twins team mate, Max Kepler

Now after winning that game, our fate was in the hands of other teams. First of all we needed Venezuela to beat Italy, which they did in an extra inning thriller, then we either needed Korea to beat Dominica, or for Dominica to beat Korea by 9 runs or more. As I watched the game unfold on TV, Dominica led all game and were up 4-0 heading into the 9th inning, and then the Korean fightback began. The 9th inning consisted of, 3 straight singles to score a run, then 2 straight pop ups. Korean were down to there last out in the 9th and then! They hit a 3 run home run to tie the game. As the home run was hit, you could hear all the boys yelling from their rooms with excitement. I was thinking, we did our part and won today, Venezuela won in extra inninga, so they did their part, surely the baseball gods are with us. Cuba could not score a run in the 9th, so the game went into extra innings and as I mentioned in a previous post, in an IBAF tournament, extra innings will start with runners on 1st and 2nd. Korean came up in the 10th, executed a perfect bunt that put their runners on 2nd and 3rd. The Dominican pitcher then struck out the next guy he faced, so now it was 2 outs with runners on 2nd and 3rd. They then intentionally walked the next hitter to load the bases up, and set up a righty-righty match up. The match up failed as the Dominican pitcher walked the hitter, which drove in the go ahead run. The next hitter struck out to end the inning.

Korean came out to defend their 1 run lead. Dominica laid down a bunt, but the runner was thrown out at 3rd base. So Dominica had runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out which is a perfect situation, that is until the Korean pitcher threw a wild pitch to advance the runners a base each. The next hitter walked which loaded the bases up, which is still a perfect situation because they could still get the double play to end the game. Korea then made a pitching change and sent Ji Woong Yoon to the mound, who is now my best friend. He struck out the first hitter he face looking for the 2nd out of the inning, and then struck out the last hitter to end the game, and send Team Australia into the 2nd round. As the batter swung and missed at that last pitch, you could hear the yells from our team in this block as we all ran outside our rooms celebrating our birth into the 2nd round at the World Cup.

We have a off day tomorrow, and then prepare for the playoffs. You can just feel right now, there's something special in the air for Team Australia, and we aren't going down without a fight.

And we're going to the 2nd round!