Report via: www.baseball.com.au
Australia has continued its Premier12 preparations with a 1-0 win over Venezuela in their warmup game at Taichung Intercontinental Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Australia broke a scoreless tie in the top of the sixth and rode strong pitching to a shutout victory in the first of two warmup games in Taiwan ahead of arriving in South Korea for their Group C campaign.
Mitch Nilsson doubled down the third base line to start the sixth ahead of Luke Hughes drawing his third walk of the contest to put runners on the corners.
Venezuela reliever Luiz Martinez responded with back-to-back strikeouts of Logan Wade and Darryl George before walking David Kandilas to load the bases.
A wild pitch allowed Nilsson to score and break the deadlock.
Australia had threatened in the fifth with David Kandilas beating out a throw at first to start the inning before Aaron Whitefield singled to put a runner in scoring position with one out.
But they were unable to convert.
Nilsson and Logan Wade both singled in the eighth as Australia again stranded a pair of runners.
Australia’s pitching allowed just five hits in a solid hit-out.
Tim Atherton, Josh Guyer and Steve Kent each worked two innings.
Atherton worked through the opening two frames on just 20 pitches, striking out two and not allowing a hit.
Todd van Steensel, Sam Holland and Ryan Searle also worked scoreless innings.
Whitefield finished with three hits and a stolen base and Nilsson and Wade each collected two hits.
