A strong all-round performance secured Australia an 8-1 victory over South Africa in the first of their best-of-five Olympic baseball qualifying play-offs at Blacktown Olympic Park last night.

The game was scoreless through four innings and tied 1-1 after five, but Australia's batters produced all the late fireworks.

Australia finished with 10 hits to four with South Africa's batters effectively shut down over the final four innings.

Two of Australia's players with United States Major League experience, designated hitter David Nilsson and second base Trent Durrington, set up the win.
Former Major League All Star Nilsson slammed a single home run over right field to open the scoring in the top of the fifth.

South Africa levelled in the same inning, but Australia surged to a 4-1 advantage in the top of the sixth after Durrington hit a three-run homer over left field which also scored third base Rodney Van Buizen and catcher Ben Wigmore.

Australia increased its advantage to 6-1 in the top of the seventh after a double to right field from Glenn Williams scored Nilsson and leftfielder Tom Brice.

The home team concluded its scoring in the top of the ninth when Williams hit a home run over right field to score Gavin Fingleson and himself.

Early on, Australia's starting pitcher Chris Oxspring gave up just two hits and one run in the first five innings, striking out nine South African batters.

The visitors enjoyed no more success against Tom Becker and David Thorne, who pitched the remaining four innings.
They both gave up just one hit in two innings.

Australian captain Nilsson was walked on his four other appearances at bat.

Van Buizen finished with three hits and Williams and Durrington two each.

No South African managed more than one hit.

South Africa's starting pitcher Barry Armitage contained the Australian batters well in the early innings and was eventually replaced after six and one third innings, having given up six runs and seven hits.

The series continues today with the first team to three wins claiming the eighth and final Olympic spot.

"It was good for us to get the first win of the series, it took a few innings to get the runs but we chugged away and scored a few," Durrington said.
"We didn't rest on that, we hit a few more and it ended well. We definitely gelled tonight."

Australian coach Jon Deeble described his team's performance as "workman-like."
"As the game wore on, we got into our comfort zone, then we turned it on," Deeble said.
"Our pitchers were outstanding, both Oxspring and Becker and offensive Dave (Nilsson) batted well along with Van Buizen and Durrington."

Australia took a vital 1-0 lead in the Olympic Qualification Series against South Africa at Blacktown Olympic Park with a resounding 8-1 victory.

However, what looked like a comfortable win on the scoreboard, was not without some moments of concern for the 'AROOS' with the scores locked at 0-0 after four innings, then 1-1 after five!

It looked like the Aussies were going to jump out from the start when 2004 Helms Award winner Brett Roneberg doubled in the first innings, but when he was left stranded on third, he was the be the first of 12 Australians to be left on base during the game!

Our information is that Roneberg hit the ball hard on a few other occasions but the "baseball gods" were to leave him with 1-6 this time.

South Africa decided to call upon a starting pitcher with some experience on Australian soil in powerful 24yo Barry Armitage.
WHO, you may well be asking?
Well, we can't say that we entirely blame Aussie fans for not having instant recognition of Armitage, unless of course you were one of the handful of people who actually followed the Gold Coast's IBLA league in 2001.
Barry Armitage represented the IBLA's MLB All-Stars in 2001 with some distinction providing them with a number of solid starts and ending the season with a very decent 3.02ERA.
He reminded us of this quality here with another sound start when he again showed his ability to pitch around some tough circumstances and to battle his way our of trouble.

It was not until Australia's major league players David Nilsson (in the fifth) then Trent Durrington (with a three-run shot in the sixth) finally clouted him for home runs that the Australians were able to get on top of him.

Armitage certainly gave his team a chance to get on top early, if they were good enough!

While sufficient damage had already been done, South Africa's relief pitchers Smith and Berriman were also quite tidy although a leadoff homer in the ninth from AROO Glenn Williams and a following hit by Van Buizen were enough to end the evening for Smith... maybe Berriman should have been allowed to start the innings??

For Australia, we could hardly have expected better from the pitching that was provided by Oxspring, Becker and Thorne in this Game One.
Many fans may have raised an eyebrow when Chris Oxspring was awarded the 'Golden Arm" after Claxton Shield 2004, but he certainly shone brightly at Blacktown tonight.
With NINE big strikeouts, Oxspring maintained a terrific shutout for four innings before allowing the South Africans their only run of the game when he was tiring in the fifth.
It was a superb start for Chris Oxspring and one that put Australia on the road to victory in the game and maybe the series?

Our reporter from Blacktown advises that young relievers Tom Becker and David Thorne were positively "nasty" and most impressive in making sure that there would be no late innings traumas for Australia.
Our mail is that both threw particularly hard and that the South African batters were unable to catch up with most of their pitches.
Thorne, in particular, showed some real "closers' venom" by owning the inside half of the plate... he hit two batters and struck out three with the type of stuff a coach loves to see to put the finishing touches on a game... QUICKLY!

Offensively, we have mentioned the home run guys Nilsson (RBI), Durrington (3RBI's) and Williams (4RBI's) who delivered all of the runs for the AROOS, while Durrington, Van Buizen and Williams each had two-hit games.

Quite clearly, news of David Nilsson's impressive return in the recent Claxton Shield must have travelled quickly to the South African camp, because they wanted very little to do with him.
'Big Dave' was walked "sort of intentionally" FOUR times by the South African pitchers and their fears were confirmed when Armitage left one within his reach which he promptly jacked over right field to open the scoring... there is no doubt about him!!

Not much need to discuss the offence of the South Africans who were only able to cobble together four individual hits, although the leadoff triple by Jason Cook in the fifth that led to their only run was their highlight.

For Australian fans we will hope that this game is a strong start to a successful campaign that ends in Athens!