POSTED: Friday September 18th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

USA HOME RUN RECORD, FOUR ONE RUN GAMES HIGHLIGHT THURSDAYS WORLD CUP PLAY

Baseball World Cup Sept. 9-27

KEY MATCHUPS ON TAP FRIDAY: There will again be eight games played on Friday in the Netherlands and
Italy, including key matchups between Puerto Rico and Cuba and the United
States and Australia.  The complete
schedule can  be found at  http://2009baseballworldcup.com/index.php?id=10

 
THURSDAYS RESULTS

PUERTO RICO 5 GREAT BRITAIN 4:  Great Britain nearly upset another world baseball power on Thursday, taking an early lead before Puerto Rico rallied for a 5-4 win. After taking a 2-0 lead on a two-run double by Puerto Rico’s Stephen Morales in the second inning, the Brits came up with a four-run rally in the fourth, when starting pitcher José Santiago gave up five hits with one out, including an RBI-double by Samuel Wiley and two-run single by Aeden McQueary-Ennis.   Puerto Rico recovered immediately and tied the score in its half of the fourth, scoring two on RBI-singles by Irving Falu and Miguel Abreu. A single by Alex Cintron gave Puerto Rico a 5-4 lead, and reliever Orlando Gonzalez retired the last 11 batters he faced to earn the save.

 

UNTIED STATES 14 CHINESE TAIPEI 3:  Pedro Alvarez hit a U.S. World Cup record three home runs, including one each in the first two innings and drove in six runs as the USA jumped out to a 14-0 lead and snapped Chinese Taipei’s three-game, second round win streak, 14-3. The USA hit six homers in total against five Chinese Taipei hurlers –also a Team USA record – and Todd Redmond went six innings to earn his second win of the World Cup.

 

MEXICO 9 NETHERLANDS ANTILLES 8:  Mexico rallied from an early 6-0 deficit to hang on for a 9-8 win in San Marino.  A first inning grand slam by the NA’s Ulrich Snijders was the key hit in a five run first, but Mexico rallied, using a five-run fifth inning to eventually take the lead, with the go-ahead runs coming on Cristian Presichi’s two run double and Jesus Cota’s run scoring single.  The Netherlands Antilles closed the gap to 9-8 in the seventh on Dijonny Joubert’s RBI single, but two Mexican relievers, Alan Guerro and Hector Navarro, did not allow a base runner over the final two innings to close out the dramatic win.

 

CUBA 10 SPAIN 0:   The undefeated Cubans broke open a close game with five eighth inning runs, and three pitchers combined on a four-hitter to defeat Spain. Jose Abreu’s two run double in the second gave Cuba the early lead, and a Hector Olivera run-scoring single made it 3-0 in the seventh.  Cuba then used a solo home run by Yulieski Gouriel and a three-run shot by Ariel Pestano to break the game open in the eighth.  Miguel Gonzalez went seven innings for the win.

 

NETHERLANDS 8 VENEZUELA 5:  The Dutch remained undefeated at home, using a 13-hit attack to beat Venezuela before 3,500 spectators.  The game was tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the fourth when the Netherlands took the lead for good on a Yurendell Decaster sacrifice fly, and it extended the lead to 6-3 on Sharlon Schoop and Hainley Statia RBI singles in the fifth.  It was 8-3 in the eighth inning when Venezuela rallied, scoring on two bases loaded walks and had the tying runs on base, but Kenley Jansen struck out Billy Rojo to end the threat.  Sidney de Jong and Curt Smith had three hits apiece for the Netherlands, while Lino Connel went 4-5 for Venezuela.

 

CANADA 3 JAPAN 2 (11): The Canadians managed only two hits off three Japanese pitchers, but scored a pair of runs on a throwing error to come from behind to beat Japan in Bologna.  Brett Lawrie’s RBI single had tied the game at one in the bottom of the sixth, but Japan came back to take a 2-1 lead in the top of the 11th on a Ryo Saeki RBI single before the Canadian rally in the bottom half of the inning.  Jimmy Henderson pitched the final three innings to get the win for Canada.

 

AUSTRALIA 5 ITALY 4:  Christopher Snelling’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth kept the host Italians winless and gave Australia a come-from-behind win in Parma.  Italy used a first inning RBI single by Jairo Ramos and a three-run second inning double by Juan Carlos Infante to go up 4-0, but Australia chipped away and tied the score at four on a Nicholas Kempton home run in the bottom of the fourth.  Dushan Ruzic pitched seven shutout innings in relief for Australia to get the win. 

 

SOUTH KOREA 7 NICARAGUA 2:  South Korea scored six runs in the fifth inning to come from behind and beat Nicaragua 7-2. South Korea used a combination of three Nicaragua fielding errors and three walks to break the game open, and three pitchers held the Nicaraguans to just seven hits in the game.  Yung-Hun Cho also homered for South Korea.  

 

NOTES
 
INTERNATIONAL
TELEVSION COVERAGE EXPANDS:  The IBAF has
added three additional television partners for the latter part of the second
round and into the final round.  WAPA TV,
the Spanish-language channel of Universal Sports in Puerto Rico and the United
States, has added Friday’s  Cuba-Puerto
Rico game, TVES in Venezuela will show all remaining games involving Venezuela,
and TV4 in Nicaragua will show all Nicaragua games remaining in the
tournament.  That is in addition to the
coverage of Eurosport2, NOS in the Netherlands, RAI Sport in Italy, and ICRT ib
Cuba. 
   


UPON
FURTHER REVIEW…MAYBE THE TWINS SHOULD HAVE FIELDED THEIR OWN TEAM: More proof
that scouts are the best source for information arose today, when the Twins
scouting staff pointed out that there are actually 14 players currently under
contract in the organization and playing in the World Cup. The 14 players
include: Garcia and Fuentes (PR), Plouffe (USA), Tosoni (CAN), Galvan (Spain),
Robb (SA), Stuifbergan (NED), Rehacek, Hejma (CZE), Beresford, Hughes,
Hendriks, Tippett, Williams (AUS). In addition, there are nine other players,
23 total, who originally signed with the Twins but are either with another team
now, or they have been released: Smit (NED), Tiffee (USA), Gessman,
Henkenjohann (GER), Hajtmar, Toufar (CZE), Berg, Hill (AUS), Sandoval (VEN).
 


ALVAREZ  SETS INDIVIDUAL, USA TIES, TEAM HOMER
MARK:  Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Pedro
Alvarez carved a niche in the USA record book by hitting three home runs in
Thursday’s win, including one each in the first two innings of play. Team USA
hit six home runs total in the game, tying their World Cup mark set against
Spain in both 1988 and 2007.  The USA has
now hit a tournament-best 22 home runs, led by Texas Rangers prospect Justin
Smoak’s six.  Smoak has had a pair of two
home run games thus far as well.
 


CUBA AT 7-0 LEADING THE WAY:   Cuba’s quest to regain the World Cup
continued on Thursday, with their shutout of Spain, their 4th to date and third in their last four games, in the
tournament. Led by a pitching staff with a 1.49 ERA and 70 strikeouts vs. only
12 walks, Cuban is the lone remaining undefeated team from the first two
rounds. Cuban pitcher Norge Vera raised his record to 2-0 on Wednesday and has
yet to allow a run in 14 innings, while Miguel Gonzalez struck out ten
consecutive batters against Puerto Rico in his first start (13 overall in 6 1/3
innings), one short of the World Cup mark of 11 set by former Major Leaguer
Burt Hooton (Dodgers and Cubs) of the USA in 1971.   Cuba is also the World Cup’s leading hitting
team, with a .351 average.
 


DUTCH MOVE TO 4-0 ON HOME TURF:  The Netherlands improved their record to 4-0
with Wednesday’s win.  San Francisco
Giants prospect Sharlon Schoop, who played with Connecticut of the Eastern
League this season, is hitting .500 (9-18) in the first five games, while
former Baltimore Oriole Eugene Kingsale is hitting at a .455 pace.
 


USA PITCHING IN CONTROL AGAIN:  Team USA’s starters continued their dominance
the second time through their rotation, as Atlanta Braves prospect Todd Redmond
pitched seven shutout innings Thursday to earn his second win, matching the
mark of Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Brad Lincoln who allowed just one run against
Japan on Tuesday. The USA rotation has combined to allow just five earned runs,
18 hits and 46 strikeouts in 41 innings. On Saturday Reckling, had 11 K’s against China, which tied the mark of
former Dodger and Cubs pitcher Burt Hooten, who fanned 11 consecutive batters
in 1970.  Sunday, Luebeke joined
Reckling, Ben McDonald (1988) and Hank Woodman (2003) as the only USA pitchers
to reach double digits in a game. Overall Team USA set their own World Cup record with 16 strikeouts vs.
China, breaking the mark of 14 set against Brazil in 2003.
 


NEW DUTCH HALL OF FAMER: Former national team-pitcher and
manager Jan-Dick Leurs officially was inducted into the Dutch Baseball and
Softball Hall of Fame on Wednesday during a ceremony before the game of the
Netherlands and Spain in Haarlem. As a player, Leurs won five Dutch
championships with Haarlem Nicols, whom he then coached to six more titles. As
manager of the Dutch national team, Leurs guided the squad to three European
titles.
 


D-BACKS
SIGN FIRST EUROPEAN PROSPECT:  The
Arizona Diamondbacks this week have signed pitcher Andrea Pizziconi of Italy,
their first ever European player signing. Pizziconi is the cousin of Cincinnati reds prospect Matteo Pizziconi,
who went 2-2 with a 1.80 ERA for the Reds Rookie League team this past summer
 


EXTRA INNING RULE: The IBAF’s Extra Inning Rule, designed to control the length of games, has
now been used five times, with Chinese Taipei (2-0) and Australia (1-1) going
to extra innings the most thus far. For extra innings, each team starts their
half of the inning with runners on first and second and no out.  Each subsequent inning starts the same until
a winner is determined.  A version of the
rule, starting in the 11th inning, was implemented during the Beijing Olympics
and was used five times, with only one game going an additional inning before
being decided.  The World Baseball
Classic adapted the rule, starting in the 14th inning, but it was never put
into effect. 

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Keywords · Baseball World Cup · baseball · IBAF

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Name: Jake Fehling
Organization: IBAF
Email:
Phone: +1 919 474-8721 x225
URL: http://www.ibaf.org

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