Israel vs. Great Britain
In its first game of the event, Israel won 5-2 against the British squad on Thursday.
Both then and now, Jason Marquis started for Israel.
When a starting pitcher throws 50 pitches, he is not allowed to pitch again in four days.
However, Israel took Marquis from the mound before having reached that limit, making him eligible to pitch again today, which was a smart move by the Israeli coaching.
Tonight, Marquis retired all batters he faced in the first four innings.
The 38-year old righthander played 15 years in the Major League for nine different teams.
In his Major League-career, Marquis threw in 377 games, won 124 games and struckout 1174 batters.
In his first four Major League-seasons (2000-2003), Marquis played for Atlanta Braves, where he was a teammate of Andruw Jones, who now is the Bench Coach of the Netherlands Kingdom Team.
The Orange squad will be one of the opponents of Israel in the first round of next year World Baseball Classic in Seoul (South Korea).
Marquis was relieved by Josh Zeid in the fifth.
He also retired the side in the fifth and the sixth to keep the Perfect Game intact.
That ended in the seventh inning when Zeid walked Jasrado Chisholm with one out.
Hereafter, he struckout Champ Stuart, whose reaction to him being ejected by Home Plate Umpire Alberto Ruiz.
Moments later, Ruiz also ejected British Manager Liam Carroll.
A grounder then ended the inning.
In the top of the eighth inning, Jeremy Bleich became the new pitcher for Israel.
With two outs, he gave up a single to Albert Cartwright that ended the No-Hitter.
With that, the lone No-Hitter in the World Baseball Classic-history remains the one pitched by Netherlands-pitcher Shairon Martis during the first Classic in 2006.
In the meantime, it was Israel that got several baserunners in its first four innings, then showed some power in the following at bats, hitting three homeruns and take a comfortable lead.
...Spencer Kreisberg starting for Great Britain against the...
...Netherlands during the European Championship...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
Spencer Kreisberg started for the Bristish team and threw four fine innings, striking out four batters and giving up only two basehits.
On September 9, he was the starting pitcher for Great Britain in its opening game of the European Championship against the Netherlands.
He then was the losing pitcher, giving up four hits and three runs in two innings.
Israel left a runner on first base in the first inning, then was retired in order in the next at bat.
In the third, Kreisberg gave up a lead-off single to Scott Burcham, but he was eliminated trying to stretch it into a double.
Hereafter, Kreisberg walked Blake Gailen, who stole second base, then was left behind.
In the fourth, Israel's lead-off hitter Nate Freiman walked, then Cody Decker was hit by a pitch with one out.
But this time, a force out and groundout followed to end the inning.
Israel then opened the score in the fifth inning, thanks to two deep homeruns.
Scott Burcham led off with a single, which led to a pitching change.
Ali Knowles took over from Kreisberg, but was greeted with a 2-run homerun by Blake Gailen to deep right-centerfield.
Before today, only on inside-the-park-homerun was hit in the event.
Hereafter, Zach Borenstein walked and that brought in another new pitcher.
Rei Martinez (who also pitched at the European Championship) took over, but he also was greeted with a 2-run homerun.
This time hit by Ryan Lavarnway that lifted the lead to 4-0.
In the sixth, new British pitcher Nolan Bond gave up the next Israeli run.
With one out, Scott Burcham reached on a bunt-single and scored on a 2-out triple by Zach Borenstein.
Trailing 5-0, some frustrations started to built up in the British squad, which led to the ejections in the top of the seventh inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Israel scored another run when Cody Decker homered with two outs.
In the top of the eighth, Great Britain not only broke the No-Hitter, but also the ShutOut.
With two outs, Albert Cartwright singled to end the No-Hitter.
As an outfield-error followed, Cartwright advanced to second base and he then scored the first British run when next batter Chavez Young also singled.
Hereafter, Kyle Simmons walked and that brought in former Major Leaguer Craig Breslow as the new pitcher for Israel.
He got a grounder that ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the eighth, Israel rallied for three more runs to take more distance and take a deciding lead.
With Greg Hendrix as new British pitcher, Blake Gailen walked with one out, then Zach Borenstein singled.
A run was scored when next batter Ryan Lavarnway also singled, which led to runners on second and third base.
Paul Kirkpatrick was brought in as new pitcher, but he gave up a 2-out double to Charlie Cutler that brought in the two runners and lifted the lead to 9-1.
In the top of the ninth, Dean Kremer closed the game for Israel.
With one out, he gave up singles to Reshard Munroe and Todd Isaacs, but followed with a strikeout.
Hereafter, a grounder by Chris Berset ended the inning, the game and the tournament.
Israel won 9-1 and with that, it qualified for the first time to participate in the World Baseball Classic!
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Israel wins big in Final to qualify for World Baseball Classic
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK CITY, New York (USA) -
Israel won big with a 9-1 score against Great Britain in the all-deciding Final of the fourth and final World Baseball Classic Qualifier on Sunday (September 25) to become the 16th and last team to reach next years World Baseball Classic.
In 2012, Israel had lost the Final of the Qualifier in ten innings against Spain.
Israel wil meet Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), South Korea and the Netherlands Kingdom Team in Pool B of the preliminary round of next years fourth edition of the World Baseball Classic in March.
This group will play its games in South Korean capital Seoul.