Baseball World Cup Classification Game for 5th Place, Messina:
Netherlands – Australia 1-4
AUS 100 000 210 4 6 0 NED 001 000 000 1 8 1
Australia is finishing in fifth place at the 2009 Baseball World Cup. They defeated the Netherlands 4-1 on Saturday evening in Messina in front of just 300 people in the stands. The Aussies scored three runs in the seventh and the eighth to decide the outcome. The Dutch team dropped the last four games of the tournament and has to settle for sixth.
Australia took a fast 1-0 lead in the opening frame on a RBI single by Luke Hughes. But the squad of Rod Delmonico tied the game in the third on a RBI single by Los Angeles Angels prospect Hainley Statia. Both teams exchanged zeros over the next three innings, before Australia struck again.
A RBI single by James Beresford in combination with an error helped Australia to regain the lead in the top of the seventh. A RBI groundout by Nicholas Kimpton extended the advantage even further. Stefan Welch sealed the win with a solo homerun in the eighth.
David Welch (W 1-0) picked up the win on the mound, allowing just six hits, a run and a walk in six innings. He struck out five. Dushan Ruzic, who is well known by many of the Dutch players due to his two years with DOOR Neptunus, closed it out with three two-hit, one-walk innings of relief. Leon Boyd (NED) received the starting nod for the Netherlands. He pitched four innings and gave up two hits, a run and two walks. Arschwin Asjes (L 0-2) took the loss.