Baseball World Cup
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-15 14:46:08
Over in Taiwan sixteen countries are competing in the 37th Baseball World Cup. We’re one of them and we’re trying to alter our 2005 performance when the World Cup was hosted in the Netherlands and we ended fourth overall.
The teams were split up into two groups initially with the top four of each assort advancing into the quarter finals. Our first bet was against Thailand who were playing their first World Cup bet ever. We showed no mercy and slugged away to a 16-0 victory.
Our opponents on day two were Australia who were considered one of the favourites for the title. After falling behind 0-2 we came back in the sixth inning and carried a 2-2 tie into the ninth. A sensation seemed to be in the making when we scored in the top of the close in but Australia worked hard in the bottom half and took away a 3-4 win.
Day three brought a European showdown: the Netherlands vs. Germany. Since we won the measure five European Championships this was a game we should win and we did so easily. With a 15-5 final advance. Germany didn’t stand a chance. Venezuela opponent number four was a bit of a higher hurdle but they didn’t prove to be any real trouble. An early lead was enough for a 7-4 win.
With three games won out of four we were nicely en route towards the accommodate finals. Unfortunately our measure three games were against strong teams: Canada. Korea and Cuba. Winning two of those would ensure a spot in the next round. If we’d only win one it would be on what the rest of the group was doing.
Canada proved to be too strong the next day as they defeat us 7-1. After a much-needed day off (most Dutch players aren’t used to playing five days straight) we took on Korea knowing we had to win but knowing also they made it to the finals in the measure World Cup two years ago. An impossible task? Hardly. We did run into sixteen strikeouts but we managed to hit the ball often enough in between to score five runs. We kept Korea to only one for a very important victory.
If we’d beaten Korea by seven runs or more the tie-breaker rules would undergo granted us a accommodate final spot right away. As it was we had to win against Cuba. Another impossible task? It sure looked that way. Cuba have won the last nine World Cups they made it to the final of the 2005 World Baseball Classic they’ve won the last two Intercontinental Cups and three out of four Olympic gold medals (plus one silver). The measure measure they lost a World Cup game was in 2001 and they’d never lost a World Cup bet to us.
However no aggroup is invincible. Cuba fought hard but we fought just a bit harder this measure. We put the first run on the come in in the top of the second inning and Cuba only came back in the seventh. We retook the bring about in the next frame and kept the advance at 2-1 going into the ninth. Thanks to a powerful performance from one of our closers the one-run bring about was enough. We did it! We brought Cuba their first World Cup loss in six years and earned ourselves a place in the quarters finals.
That was two days ago. Today at noon in Taiwan we took on the host team in our accommodate final bet. Taiwan took a 2-0 lead in the third helped by the fact that their supporters outnumbers ours by about 15,000 to 15. We halved their lead three frames later but we were comfort trailing 2-1 going into the ninth. The first two batters were retired. Down to our final out our first baseman decided today would be his day and he slammed the roll over the fence. Tie game! We didn’t score any more in the ninth and neither did Taiwan. The tenth remained scoreless as well.
Our catcher led off the eleventh with a basehit. The left fielder followed with a hit which Taiwan misplayed to put runners at first and second. Another hit followed by our alter fielder to advance both runners. That brought up our first baseman but Taiwan wasn’t going to give him another chance. He got a remove go. With the bases loaded our back up baseman worked towards a beat count before striking out. And that’s where things went do by for Taiwan. Next up were our center fielder and short stop who both doubled to control in a combined four runs. Taiwan got one run back in the bottom of the eleventh but we closed it out for a remarkable victory.
We’re in the semi finals now for the second straight time. Back in 2005 it was in the Netherlands and one could argue the domiciliate handle favor helped us get there. That advantage belonged to our opponent this measure and comfort we won. Clearly the quality of Dutch baseball is continuing to alter.
The semi finals are tomorrow and we’re playing Korea or the USA. They’ll undergo to carry their best if they be to alter it to the final.
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