Friday 7 October 2011

World Cup - Day 11 - vs Dominican Republic

Today, just like yesterday was a must win game for us and well, we didn't disappoint, we may have caused a few heart attacks but we still came out with a hard fought win against the Dominican Republic. This game had it all, we had lightning delays, the IBAF tie break rule and even a pitcher hitting.

Stefan Welch got the scoring underway in the 2nd inning with a solo shot over the right field wall, I think over the wall is an understatement. I'm pretty sure his home run went over the 2 lane road, and landed in someones front yard. We scored another run in the 4th with an RBI single from Tim Kennelly, then scored 3 runs in the 5th thanks to Justin Huber's bases clearing double. In the meantime Dushan Ruzic was throwing a hell of a game only allowing 1 run through his first 5 frames. In the 7th Huber was at it again, this time hitting a 2 run home run to left field, then an inning later Mitch Dening hit an RBI single to put us up 8-1 in the 8th. Then things became interesting as we went into a 30 minute lightning delay which meant Dushan Ruzic would not come back into the game. He finished the game throwing 7 strong innings, only allowing 1 run on 4 hits and was in line for the win. When the lightning delay was over we started the game in the bottom of the 8th and handed the ball to Kable Hogben who ran into some trouble in the inning allowing 3 runs whilst getting 2 outs. Brendan Wise backed up from last night and shut down the inning. He came out again for the 9th with a 4 run lead and all of a sudden the Dominican bats woke up and they tied the game up on 4 singles, a sac fly and an error which meant we were heading into extra innings.


Now extra innings in an IBAF competition you play under the tie breaker rules, which means you start every inning with runners on 1st and 2nd base. So we sent Scott Wearne to 2nd, David Kandilas to 1st and sent James Beresford to lead off the inning. Beresford got on from a very lucky bunt base hit that flirted with the foul line, then Mitch Dening came up in the clutch again delivering a bases clearing double to put us up by 3. Steve Kent came out to throw the bottom of the 10th, he struck out the first hitter, then gave up a single to left that scored the Dominican runner from 2nd base. Then the game got even more strange. Due to the Dominican manager pinch running for the designated hitter, then sending that pinch runner into the game, it meant the pitcher had to hit for himself, and well, in the 10th, the pitcher came up and struck out on a very ugly swing. Two pitches later, they attempted a double steal and the runner trying to take 2nd got caught ending the game and handing us our 2nd win to keep our hopes of making the playoffs alive.


It was very nerve wracking and exciting in the dugout, and I could only imagine what it would of been like for everyone back home watching the play-by-play online. Tomorrow we play Venezuala who lead our division with a 4-1 record, so everyone back home should gear up for another heart stopping game. Don't say we aren't making things exciting for you!







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