Thursday 7 March 2013

2013 baseball World Classic Update Pool B

In Taichung, Taiwan the pool was much closer. there was not overall convincing winner as there was in Pool A.The only disappointment was Australia's failure to win any match.
The three other clubs hypothetically tied for first- each winning 2 games and losing 1.The eventual winner and pool team to go through was Chinese Taipei, who won the Asian qualifying round in style, back in November 2012. During the qualifying campaign they didn't allow a run, winning all games: 10-0, 16-0 and 9-0.
Chinese Taipei's wins over Australia and the highly favoured Dutch put them on course for another three straight wins.
 
The second team through to the second round was the impressive 'Kingdom of the Netherlands' or Holland as we say in Europe. Possibly the best of the European teams in the competition. Although they beat South Korea convincingly in the first game, they let a 3-1 lead slip to Chinese Taipei. Their final game against Australia, they didn't look back after securing a 4-0 lead. They should do well in the rest of the competition.
 
The South Koreans must feel unlucky. Winning as many games as Holland and Chinese Taipei but still not getting through to the next round. Losing without scoring against Holland (5-0) was eventually their downfall.
 
 
 
The biggest disappointment, for me, was the Australian team, who only scored 2 runs in their three tournament matches. This is the same nation who set the record for most hits (22) in a past Classic, when they beat Mexico 17-7 in  2009. Despite have a professional league and many players in the MLB, they didn't deliver at all this year and will need to go through qualification for the next Classic. Three games, 3 losses.
 

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