Australia vs Netherlands Review

Netherlands 4 – Australia 1

Australia broke a 17 inning stretch of scoreless innings by plating 1, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Netherlands. Offensively Australia manged 8 hits, their best performance of the tournament, but failed to capitalise on their opportunities. Shaky starting pitching from Dushan Ruzic gave the Netherlands an early advantage, one that Australia could not come back from.

Chris Oxpring was impressive in relief throwing 5 scoreless innings.

The loss means Australia will not qualify for the next edition of the WBC and instead will have to go through qualifying for the 2017 edition.

Game Report

Yet again Australia got off to a bad start with Dushan Ruzic letting in a run in the first. Eventually giving up 4 over his 2 innings of work.

Chris Oxspring took over from Ruzic in the 3rd, getting into a jam immediately but was able to escape unscathed. He continued in the 4th without giving up a run. In the 5th he retired the side without incident. Oxpring closed down the Netherlands in the 6th on five pitches.

In the top of the 7th, Stefan Welch doubled. Brad Harmen singled to drive in Welch, but with runners on first and second pitch hitter Chris Snelling struck out.

Oxspring continued in the bottom of the 7th. Retiring the Dutch with ease.

In the top of the 8th, James Beresford led of with a walk, but Mitch Denning grounded into a double play. Luke Hughes followed with his first hit of the tournament with a single to left. Welch grounded out to second to end the dig.

In the bottom of the 8th Atlanta Braves sidearmer Andrew Russell took over from Oxspring. He gave up a lead off double to Arubian born Xander Bogaerts but Russell managed to shut down the Dutch offense thanks to some handy glove work by James Beresford at shortstop.

In the top of the 9th with Australia needing 3 runs to keep their campaign alive, lead off with an out, but strung together two hits from Mike Walker and Corey Adamson. Brad Harmen managed to work the count full before sending a deep drive to LF, unfortunately he just came up short. Alan due San Miguel was next up, striking out, ending the mini revival and the Tournament for Australia.

The Netherlands, barring a big win by Korea over Chinese Taipei will move on to the second round.