South Africa earns first win of the tournament; Australia wins in seven; Colombia in eleven
26/10/2018 3 Minute Read

South Africa earns first win of the tournament; Australia wins in seven; Colombia in eleven

The second day of the Consolation Round of the U-23 Baseball World Cup is being held this Friday in the city of Monteria, Colombia.

The second day of the Consolation Round of the U-23 Baseball World Cup is being held this Friday in the city of Monteria, Colombia. In the first game, South Africa defeated the Czech Republic 9-1.

South Africa 9-2 Czech Republic

South Africa claimed its first win of the tournament in Monteria this morning by beating the Czech Republic 9-2. The African team connected 15 hits to claim the game. This is South Africa’s second win in the history of the U-23 Baseball World Cup, since they beat Austria by 9-3 in Monterrey, two years ago.

South Africa scored twice in its first attack, with a single by Rowan Ebersohn and a sacrifice fly by Nicholas Eagles.

In the bottom of the second inning, catcher Martin Muzik took advantage of the only mistake made by South African starter Garth Cahill, to connect a solo homer and make it a one run difference.

Cahill had an excellent outing this morning and earned the victory. The right hander threw 5 innings allowing only 2 hits and 1 run, the solo homer by Muzik. The South African struck out 7 Czech batters, conceding only 2 bases on balls.

Cameron Frotuin worked in relief and got the save. The southpaw threw 4 innings, allowing 3 hits and 1 run, with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts.

The Czech Republic pitching could not stop the South Africans from third to fifth innings. The green team scored three runs in the fourth, with an error and a 2-RBI single by Brandon Smith. Then in the fifth Eagles drove his second run of the game, with a hit to left field, and an inning later Brandon Smith brought two more runs to put the game 8-1.

In the eighth inning Smith produced the last run of the game, with a single through the middle of the field to plate Joshua Halvorsen.

South Africa and the Czech Republic are tied in the standings with a 1-3 record and tomorrow they will close their participation in the tournament, facing Australia and Colombia respectively.

Australia 16-3 Netherlands

Australia recovered this afternoon from the tough defeat suffered last night with a resounding victory against the Netherlands, 16-3, in seven innings. The Dutch pitchers could not do much against the bats of Australian, who scored 14 runs in the first three episodes.

Center fielder Jack Barrie and short stop Robert Glendinning homered twice for the Australian team, while right fielder Ulrich Bojarski hit a solo homer to add his third bomb of the tournament, which places him at the top of the list of maximum home runs of the tournament.

The Netherlands sent six pitchers to the mound throughout the game, including two position players.

With this result Australia has a 2-2 record and tomorrow will close the tournament against South Africa. For its part Netherlands has a record of 1-3, and will play the last game of the World Cup in Monteria, against Colombia.

Colombia 3-1 Puerto Rico

The 18 de Junio stadium witnessed a thrilling pitching duel, where both offenses could hardly hurt their opponents. Colombia beat Puerto Rico, 3-1, in 11 innings and secured the seventh place in the U-23 Baseball World Cup.

On the Puerto Rico side, five pitchers combined to cover 11 innings with no earned runs allowed, despite having been defeated.

On the other side, Colombian Juan Escorcia had a brilliant outing, striking out 10 batters in six full innings, without walks. The Colombian handed the ball to Luis Moreno to start the seventh inning, with the advantage of 1-0 on the scoreboard. Then Elkin Alcala threw the ninth, and Jhon Romero the two extrinnings, hunging the zeros for his team.

Juan Escorcia had a stellar performance against Puerto Rico

Colombia had taken advantage in the opening of the fourth episode. Brallan Perez reached thanks to an error of the short stop Octavio Cancel, and later advanced to second on a passed ball. With one out on the board, Perez stole third base, and the throw went into left field, allowing the host team to take the lead.

However, Moreno could not maintain the lead in the seventh inning for Colombia. Jose Miranda and Emmanuel Rivera hit back to back singles to right field, and then advanced with a wild pitch. A pitch later Jay Feliciano landed a long fly ball into center field to push the tied run with a sacrifice. Moreno struck out the next two batters he faced to get out of the inning.

The game remained tied and went to extra innings, where both teams started with runners in first and second by the tie breake rule. Colombia first had its chance, but failed in the execution. Jair Camargo bunted, but the defense retired the runner on third for the first out of the inning. And then Jordan Díaz hit for double play, coming out empty handed.

Puerto Rico had the opportunity to leave Colombia on the field, but could not score either. The bunt was successful and the two runners advanced. However, after filling the bases with an intentional ticket, Lean Marrero and Xavier Fernandez connected to the short stop who made the plays in home and second to finish the tenth inning.

The left-hander Jose Alberro went up to the mound for Puerto Rico to throw the eleventh inning, and after retiring the first out with a fly ball, walked to Jesus Marriagay and struck out Brallan Perez. With the bases loaded and two outs, the pitcher put Carlos Vidal in full account, and the Colombian center fielder connected a line between the center and right field to plate two runs, giving Colombia the advantage.

At the bottom of the second extra inning, Jhon Romero retired the side to seal the victory.