Australia 13 defeated South Africa 1
AUSTRALIA clinched the final baseball spot in this year's Olympics with a crushing win over South Africa at Blacktown Olympic Park tonight.

The home team secured the Oceania versus Africa five-game play-off series in straight matches after triumphing 8-1 and 6-4 over the two previous nights at the same venue.

Unlike the earlier games, which went scoreless for the first four innings, Australia scored heavily early on.
The home team notched two runs in the first innings and piled on seven more in the second to take control of the match.

Australia added two more runs in both the fifth and seventh innings with South Africa's only score coming in the bottom of the first.

Australian head coach Jon Deeble felt his team performed very well over the three nights considering his squad, virtually all of whom are affiliated to Major League clubs, were not in peak condition at this time.
"It's tough to be up peaking at this time, so for them to come out and do what they did was very good," Deeble said.

Australian short stop Glenn Williams was named the most valuable player of the Oceania-Africa player of series after collecting eight RBIs over the three matches.

Deeble reiterated Australia was a medal chance at the Olympics, but felt there was still considerable improvement left in the team, most of whom will now return to their Major League clubs in North America.

He said the team might not be finalised until the day before it leaves for Athens on July 9 because of uncertainty over how many of his players would not be released by their Major League organisations.

A standing room-only crowd of almost 2000 watched tonight's game.

Australia clinched the final Olympic baseball tournament spot in grand style on Saturday night as its batters cut loose in a convincing 13-1 victory over South Africa at Blacktown Olympic Park.

The Australians notched eleven hits to four as they secured the best of five game series in three straight matches.

The win, which followed earlier 8-1 and 6-4 victories, ensured Australia would join Japan, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Canada, The Netherlands, Italy and host country Greece in the eight team tournament in August.

Unlike the first two games, which were scoreless through the first four innings, Australia's batters took command early on in the clash.

The home team scored two runs in the first innings and seven more in the second.
Australia added two more runs in both the fifth and seventh innings with the mercy rule invoked after the latter, after they held the lead by ten runs.

South Africa, which scored it's only run in the bottom of the first, used three pitchers in the first two innings alone.

Second base Gavin Fingleson spearheaded the batting rampage with three hits - all of them doubles.
Centre field Trent Durrington and leftfielder Brett Roneberg each got two hits and four more players got one each.

Starting pitcher Craig Anderson conceded one run and four hits in three innings with four other member of the Australian bullpen getting an inning each.

Australian head coach Jon Deeble felt his team performed very well over the three nights considering his squad, virtually all of whom are affiliated to Major League clubs, were not in peak condition at this time.
"It's tough to be up peaking at this time, so for them to come out and do what they did was very good," Deeble said.

Australian short stop Glenn Williams was named the most valuable player of the Oceania-Africa player of series after collecting eight RBIs over the three matches.

Deeble reiterated Australia was a medal chance at the Olympics, but felt there was still considerable improvement left in the team, most of whom will now return to their Major League clubs in North America.

He said the team might not be finalised until the day before it leaves for Athens on July 9 because of uncertainty over how many of his players would not be released by their Major League organisations.

SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia won the last spot in the Athens Olympics baseball tournament, beating South Africa 13-1 Saturday and taking the best-of-five final in three straight games.

Australia, which scored seven runs in the second inning, won the first two games 8-1 and 6-4.

Also in the eight-country tournament in August are: Japan, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Italy, Cuba, Canada and host Greece.

Pending our full reports from Blacktown, we can advise you that our Australian baseball team booked it's tickets to Athens with a dominant 13-1 "mercy killing" of South Africa last night.

It appears that South Africa used the biggest guns they had in the bullpen to pitch the opening two games, but they ran out of serious options to trouble the Australian offence in Game 3.
So, the expected hard-fought series clincher did not eventuate with the South African overwhelmed while Australia completed the 3-0 series sweep!

While we await the detailed report, here is a taste of the proceedings from one of our loyal subscribers GREG STOCK, direct from the game at Blacktown:-

Tonight's game was something of a disappointment in the way South Africa crumbled beneath an avalanche of runs from Australia.

Seven runs in the second inning had us run through a succession of South African pitchers to set up the win.

Not one South African pitcher appeared dangerous with the Aussies seemingly taking hits at will.
They were also called for two baulks during the second inning and a third in the 6th or 7th which really took the wind from their sails.

Anderson pitched well for Australia.
He struggled a little for control and gave South Africa their run when 3rd baseman Glenn Williams wasn't quick enough to react to a bunt and the runner from 3rd snuck home.

Nilsson picked up another couple of walks and a great hit which batted in Durrington in the 4th or 5th.

Australia's bullpen flexing a little of their muscle with John Stephens, Phil Stockman and Richard Thompson returning in the 7th to shut South Africa down.
Stephens was interesting, never throwing higher than 85mph but seemingly troubling all he faced.
Stockman threw a couple in the low 90's and looked nearly untouchable.

MORE LATER!

Our Australian baseball team booked its tickets to Athens with a dominant 13-1 "mercy killing" of South Africa last night, having completed a quite conclusive 3-0 sweep in the Best-of-5 series.

The first thing that our reporter wanted to highlight was the "jam packed" crowd at Blacktown last night and the vocal support for both teams during the series that really did provide Australian baseball with a rare taste of true atmosphere.
It also provided a ray of sunshine for the support of 'big time' baseball in Australia.

The third game of the series was perhaps to highlight the major difference between the Australian and the South African teams.
While Australia would also boast an edge in offence and defence, it is in pitching depth that the gulf between the two baseball nations is most evident.

Both teams used a "committee" of pitchers last night but for vastly different reasons!

While the South Africans called upon six fresh arms to take the mound it seemed to be a case of "shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic" and trying to find someone who could subdue the Australian hitters.
There would not be much point in discussing the individual performances of the South African "throwers" as none of them was particularly effective.
However, if we were to explain the collective performance of their pitchers by reporting that they recorded a total of six walks, four balks and four hit batters while giving up 13 hits and not boasting one single strikeout, it would seem to indicate that these guys were not up to pitching at this level of competition... at least not yet!

The fact that Australia also used five pitchers was more an indication of a team that knew pretty early that victory would be achieved and that it would be their last chance to give some of the fresh pitchers some work in the national team uniform.

Experienced starter Craig Anderson set the tone early by throwing a lot of strikes and there is little doubt that he could have gone a lot deeper had this been required.
Major league teammate John Stephens surely owes Anderson a beer for being allowed to take over just in time to collect the win.
Each of Anderson, Stephens, Phil Stockman, James Darby and Richard Thompson could be well satisfied with their contributions for Australia.
They combined to allow only four hits while striking out nine in the seven completed innings!

It was the NSW and Queensland show on the offensive scoreboard with experienced hitters Gavin Fingleson, Trent Durrington and Brett Roneberg each enjoying multi-hit games and driving in runs.
Very experienced David Nilsson, Craig Lewis and Brendan Kingman each drove in two runs from limited at bats.
Only WA's Luke Hughes broke the "northern states monopoly" by getting a hit and he also delivered a RBI.

For the South Africans Willemberg, Kemp and Bell added to their reasonably consistent hitting for the short series.

CONGRATULATIONS to Glenn Williams who was voted MVP of the series.

In conclusion, Australia should be pretty pleased with their 3-0 sweep of the series.
It may not have been an entirely unexpected result, but then it never pays to take anything for granted at this level of sport.

We cannot be sure about the longevity of baseball as an Olympic sport, so it would be a great time for Australia to grab a medal.

Naturally, we wish our team good health and the very best of luck... they may need a little of that!