World Baseball Classic Pool B: South Africa – Mexico 3-14
MEX 102 000 344 14 16 2 SFA 101 000 100 3 7 2
Mexico crushed South Africa 14-3 on Monday in Pool B of the 2009 World Baseball Classic, sending the underdog home after two games. The hosting team at the Foro Sol Stadium in Mexico City will face the loser of the Cuba-Australia matchup on Wednesday. But the game wasn’t that one-sided, as the final score might indicate.
Mexico started as expected and took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a RBI double by San Diego Padre Adrian Gonzalez. But South Africa stunned the home crowd by tying the game in the bottom of the first, when Gift Ngoepe scored on a groundout by Jonathan Phillips. Mexico got back in front with two-run homerun by Gonzalez in the third. Again South Africa had an answer, cutting the deficit to a run in the bottom of the frame with Ngoepe’s RBI triple, his second of the game.
The score stayed close for the next three frames, before Mexico blew the game wide open with eleven runs between the seventh and ninth. Gonzalez hit another homerun to increase his RBI total to six for the day. Oscar Robles (3-6, 3 runs) and Jorge Cantu (3-5, 3 RBI) added two-run shots. Leadoff hitter Jerry Hairston Jr. scored three times. South Africa scored a third run in the bottom of the seventh on Anthony Phillips’ RBI single, but certainly had not enough fire power to go toe to toe with the Mexican offense for the complete nine innings.
Elmer Dessens (W 1-0) allowed two runs (1 ER) on three hits in six effective innings, striking out three. Justin Erasmus (L 0-1) started for South Africa and gave up five hits, three runs and a walk in three innings.