Result
Australia - 6 to 0

Australia's Record
1 win - 2 losses

Brett's Fielding Position and the Batting Order
Started the game at centrefield and went to leftfield in the ninth innings
Batting at #2

Brett's Statistics - Game
Batting - 2 hits from 4 at-bats - single and double
------------------3 x runs-driven-in
------------------1 x walk
------------------1 x stolen base
Fielding - 3 put-outs

Brett's Plate Appearances
First at-bat
???handed pitcher
Bases empty - one down
Walk
Went to second base on a ground-out
Went to third base on a hit
Left stranded at the end of the innings
Second at-bat
???handed pitcher
Bases empty - one down
Ground ball to second base
Out 4-to-3
Third at-bat
???handed pitcher
Bases empty - two down
Single
Stole to second base
Left stranded at the end of the innings
Fourth at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Runners at first and second base - two down
Double into the leftfield corner
......and 2 x RBI's
Left stranded at the end of the innings

Fifth at-bat
???handed pitcher
The bases are loaded (from what I can work out from the 'play-by-play' report) - one down
Ground ball in the infield and the runner was out at second base
At first base on a fielder's-choice play
......and 1 x RBI
Left stranded at the end of the innings

Email from Brett
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Pre-Game Notes
Cuba v Japan to highlight Day 3

The highlight of day three's action at the Olympic Baseball Centre will be the clash between unbeaten Cuba and Japan.
Three winless teams, Greece, Australian and Italy, will be looking to open their accounts.

NED v CAN
Canada will play the Netherlands in the first game of day three.
This is a pivotal match for both teams as Canada (2-0) is trying to keep pace with favourites Japan and Cuba, while a loss for the Netherlands (1-1) could make a trip to the medal round increasingly difficult, despite stretching Japan on Monday.
TPE v GRE
In the second game of the day Chinese Taipei will play host team Greece.
Taipei (1-1) which has brought a 'dream team' of its best professionals played much better in the second day of competition in beating Australia 3-0.
Greece will try to give the home crowd the country’s first ever win in an Olympic Baseball Tournament, after getting close before losing 5-4 to Cuba on Monday.
ITA v AUS
Two winless teams will face off in first game of the evening session as Italy (0-2) play Australia (0-2).
Both teams had high hopes coming into the tournament but now see their medal hopes fading fast.
Australia’s offence has gone dormant as it has scored only one run the entire tournament.
Italy has been blown out in both games losing 11-0 to Japan in the first game and then 9-3 to Canada in the second.
CUB v JPN
The second game of the evening will see two highly favoured teams play one another for the first time in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games as Cuba (2-0) will take on Japan (2-0) after both survived difficult matches on Monday.

Game Reports
AUSTRALIA RESPONDS WITH 6-0 ITALY SHUTOUT

It is difficult not to get carried away with a tremendous performance by our 'A-ROOS' overnight when we secured a most decisive 6-0 shutout victory over Italy in a "must win" situation.

"No big deal to beat Italy", do we hear anyone saying?

To put this in some perspective for you, it was only four years ago at our very own Sydney Olympics that the Italians probably put paid to our last fleeting chances of securing a semi-final spot with a heartbreaking 8-7 win in 12-innings.
On that miserable occasion for Australian baseball Italy racked up 16 hits against a very talented, but much younger and more inexperienced Australian bullpen.
Young Aussie flamethrower Grant Balfour may still be haunted by the extra innings home run he allowed after a fine tournament (sorry Grant!), but he may be watching happily from Minnesota on this day as a bona fide major league pitcher with the Twins.

We also hate to mention that Italy also boasts a superior (national) baseball league to Australia... as we have NONE!
We don't want to spoil the enjoyment of this moment by discussing this EMBARRASSING situation in Australia... enough said.

This allows us to get straight to the point of what may be the biggest difference between this and previous Australian teams at International events where we have a tremendous depth of quality pitching, maybe as good as any nation other than the USA or the Dominicans?

Whereas we would have been getting to the "skinny" part of our pitching in previous tournaments, opposing teams will find few weak links in this Australian bullpen... and we mention again that several other stars are not in Athens!

We had some question about Chris Oxspring being awarded the 'Pitcher of the Year' at the 2004 Claxton Shield but there could be no denying the brilliance of his performance for his country on this most important, pressure occasion.
Oxspring produced Australia's third quality start from as many games in the tournament and, while we might query the relative strength of the Italian hitting, he was nothing short of magnificent.
His virtuoso one-hit performance was just the thing Australia needed to get our campaign back on the rails as he allowed only two base runners through eight terrific innings of poised and professional pitching.

Chris may be a little peeved that he was not given the opportunity to finish the complete game shutout, but then we were hardly giving Italy a chance for a heroic comeback by inserting emerging young professional star Ryan Rowland-Smith who continues to enhance his growing credentials.
Chris and Ryan can be very content with a combined one-hit shutout!

OK, so having established that Australia could not lose with a shutout from our pitchers, the much bigger question for us at these Olympics was whether we could take advantage of some "less daunting" pitching to get some of our quality hitters to emerge from what we hoped would be a temporary hibernation?

We can't claim to know much about Italy's starter Michael Marchesano, other than the report that he was born in the USA and he plays in the Italian league, however, he caused us plenty of anxiety with six successive zeros on the scoreboard until he perhaps started to tire in the seventh inning?

Like Aussie starters Anderson and Stephens in our opening games, Italy could hardly blame Marchesano for not keeping them in with a winning chance.

Just when our management team would have been getting very nervous about our slumbering offence, our boys (thankfully) decided that it was time to make something happen and, as is often the case, once the hits and runs started to flow it became contagious!

In the space of a few innings we had finally awakened for 12 hits and six solid runs to give the scoreline a quite impressive appearance.

Headlining the offence was talented youngster Tom Brice with three knocks, but maybe even better was our most recent Helms Award winner Brett Roneberg who lashed out with three 'ribbies' from his two hits to confirm his status as one of our most important baseballers of the modern era.

Veterans Gavin Fingleson and David Nilsson each delivered two hits and a RBI each, but then there are not many games involving Australia when Nilsson is not among the "heavy hitters"!

Also another mention for the contribution of "replacement player" Andrew Utting who delivered another RBI in this game... what a tremendous baseball story he is after suffering crushing career setbacks early in his baseball development!

So, while we bask in the glory (or is that relief?) of winning such an important game, we did promise to put the win into perspective for you and therefore we must not ignore that Italy have already been heavily beaten by likely finalists Canada and Japan and that we have MUCH more serious games ahead if we are to qualify for the semi-finals.

In the meantime we can enjoy the fact that we remain in the hunt and, how often has it been in the past when these European teams like Italy and Netherlands have de-railed our hopes?... far too many times!!

Our upcoming game against Japan will give us a better indication of our chances as we must beat at least one of the "big guns" to progress!

BaseballAmerica.com - USA
Australia 6 - Italy 0

Padres righthander Chris Oxspring pitched eight scoreless innings and combined with Ryan Rowland-Smith (Mariners) on a one-hitter as Australia defeated Italy.

Oxspring was perfect through five innings before allowing a leadoff single in the sixth and allowed just two batters to reach base in his outing to earn the victory.

Australia is now 1-2 in the competition while Italy falls to 0-3.

After six scoreless innings of play, Brett Roneberg (Red Sox) hit a two-out double to left field that scored Gavin Fingleson (New Haven, independent) and Rodney van Buizen (Dodgers) to give Australia a 2-0 lead.

Australia expanded its lead in the eighth inning with four more runs.
Roneberg had another RBI single along with David Nilsson, Andrew Utting and Fingleson to put Australia well out in front of the Italians.
(Utting, a catcher and former Orioles farmhand, was incorrectly referred to as Ben Utting yesterday.)

Australia finished the night with 12 hits, its most in a tournament game at this year's Olympics.

The Aussies managed only one run in their first two games against Taiwan and Cuba.

Outfielder Thomas Brice (White Sox) batting 3-for-5 and Roneberg and Nilsson each going 2-for-4.

Italy received a solid outing from starter Michael Marchesano despite the loss.
Marchesano went 6-2/3 innings allowing two runs - both unearned - on six hits and three walks.

Both teams continue action tomorrow with an all-Europe game between Italy and The Netherlands while Australia faces Japan.

It's a Fort Wayne mound matchup in Athens

A player with Fort Wayne, Ind., ties put together a dominating effort, a one-hit shutout Monday that kept alive his nation's long-shot bid for an Olympic baseball medal.
It just wasn't the player many Fort Wayne fans might think of first.

On a windy Monday in Athens, Chris Oxspring, a right-hander who made 41 appearances for the Fort Wayne Wizards in 2001, wrestled the story line from Mike Marchesano, an Elmhurst, Ind., pitcher who is the ace of Italy's staff.

Oxspring, a Triple A pitcher in the San Diego Padres system, was backed by stronger bats and better gloves from his Australian teammates - and he needed both to overcome a gutty effort by Marchesano.

The two dueled into the seventh before the Aussies broke loose for a 6-0 victory.

"It took us awhile to get to him," Oxspring said of Marchesano.
"There wasn't a sense of urgency, but everyone wanted this one."

Indeed, Marchesano, who describes himself as "overlooked" in pro baseball in the United States, locked into a duel with a pitcher on the rise, just a step from the majors.

"I just wanted to stay in there and give us a chance to win," said Marchesano, 28, the son of an Italian immigrant.

Marchesano was game, repeatedly pitching out of jams, but the defense behind him was lame.
At least one runner reached base in each inning, but Marchesano's masterful mix of off-speed pitches kept the Australians guessing.

"He was throwing off-speed stuff any time in the count," said Australia's Brett Roneberg.
"He was courageous out there."

Meanwhile, Italy's hitters who had scored just three runs in losses to Canada and Japan, had little success touching Oxspring's 95-mph fastballs.

"I was just trying to throw strikes," Oxspring said. "It was pretty easy to throw today."

But as they dueled into the late innings, Italy's Achilles' heel booted the game away.

First baseman Claudio Liverziani looked like the Italian translation for Bill Buckner, botching a sharply hit ball by Andrew Utting.
It was Italy's eighth error in three games.
Marchesano then hit Gavin Fingelson with a pitch.
But Marchesano got the next two outs before Roneberg drove a ball deep to left.
Outfielder James Buccheri dived from a full stride and the ball glanced off his glove into the leftfield corner.
Two runs scored.
That was all Australia needed.

"I think the way the wind was blowing that was a pretty tough play," Marchesano said.

Dejected, Marchesano headed for the dugout, and a leaky bullpen turned the game into a rout.

"We heard that if we could get past the starter, they didn't have much there," said Roneberg, a former Triple A player in Calgary.

After the game, Aussies, including first baseman Craig Lewis, a former teammate on the Brockton Rox in the Northeast League, consoled Marchesano.
"Good throwin'," offered another.

Italy dropped to 0-3, moving Marchesano closer to a return to the Rimini Pirates in the Italian League.
There's a playoff push waiting.

But first he'll have one more start in the Olympics, one more chance to catch the eyes of the scouts, this time against perennial gold-medal contender Cuba.

Where he'll play next season, he doesn't know.
He just knows he'll play somewhere.
"As long as a team wants you and as long as you can still play," he said wistfully, "it's still good."

From the Portland Sea Dogs web site

Outfielder Brett Roneberg starred in Australia's 6-0 win over Italy in the Olympics.
He broke a 0-0 tie with a two-run double in the sixth inning.

Oxspring sparks Aussie baseball breakthrough win

Chris Oxspring demonstrated why a Major League call-up beckons after an outstanding display of control and speed to ignite the Australian baseball team to a welcomed 6-0 win over Italy in their third preliminary game on Day 4.

After two first up losses, the Australians were in need of victory to restore their Olympic hopes and Oxspring led the way conceding only a single hit, one walk and striking out five batters in eight quality innings.

With the Italians unable to handle Oxspring, the Australian batters finally found their offensive weaponry to peel off two runs in the seventh inning before scoring four more an inning later.

"Ox was outstanding tonight," said head coach Jon Deeble.
"It was a quality performance and we managed to get our offence finally going towards the end."

Captain and catcher Dave Nilsson, who has seen many top class pitchers in his Major League career, tipped Oxspring to be called up from his Portland Triple AAA team by the San Diego Padres before the end of the American season.

"I think he's ready and it wouldn't surprise me to see him get a call up before the end of the season," said Nilsson.

Oxspring said he was delighted with his pitching.
"I was very happy with everything tonight. It's great to get the win and now we can move forward," said Oxspring.

Italy used number one starting pitcher, Michael Marchesano against the Australians and he held on until the sixth innings despite allowing six hits.
However, the Australian batters couldn't convert the hits into runs and a frustrating night loomed until centre fielder Brett Roneberg sparked the run onslaught.
With Gavin Fingleson and Rodney Van Buizen on base, Roneberg hit a double to deep left field to score both team mates.

In the eighth designated hitter Andrew Utting scored first baseman Craig Lewis before Fingleson batted in Tom Brice.
Roneberg took to the plate again and ran in Utting and the scoring was complete when Nilsson's single saw Fingleson crossed the plate.

Australia will be looking to a second win when it faces Japan with Phil Stockman starting the match as pitcher.

Australia's hopes stay alive

Australia has kept alive it slim hopes of reaching the next round of the Olympic baseball tournament with a 6-0 win over Italy in their pool match.

Two runs in the seventh inning broke the 0-0 deadlock and the Australians scored another four in the eighth to score their first win of the Games at the Helliniko Olympic Complex.

Gavin Fingleson and Rodney van Buizen came home off a Brett Ronenberg hit deep into left field in the seventh inning and the flood gates opened in the eight as the Italians used two hapless pitchers.

After losing the first two matches Australia needs to win at least three of its remaining four pool games, which includes gold medal favourite Japan, and also hope other results goes its way.

Baseballers keep hopes alive

AUSTRALIA has kept alive its slim hopes of reaching the next round of the Olympic baseball tournament with a 6-0 win over Italy overnight.

Two runs in the seventh inning broke the 0-0 deadlock and the Australians scored another four in the eighth to record their first win of the Games at the Helliniko Olympic Complex.

Gavin Fingleson and Rodney van Buizen came home off a Brett Roneberg hit deep into left field in the seventh inning and the flood gates opened in the eighth as the Italians used two hapless pitchers.

After losing the first two matches Australia needs to win at least three of its remaining four pool games, starting with the daunting task of gold medal favourite Japan tomorrow.

Coach Jon Deeble believed today's breakthrough after losses to Cuba and Taiwan would set the Australians up for a shot at the Japanese.

"It keeps us alive, we're right in this now," Deeble said.
"We have the ability to beat the Japanese, I have no doubt we can beat the Japanese and then we need to win two more.
"We'll come out tomorrow and go after it, they'll have a battle on their hands."

Pitcher Chris Oxspring gave up only one hit for the match and after Australia's run drought was broken in the seventh inning, Craig Lewis, Thomas Brice, Roneberg and Fingleson all scored runs in the eighth.

A convincing win for Australia!

Australia secured a convincing 6 run victory over the Italians last night in their third game of the prelimenary rounds of the Olympic Games.

Let's hope this is the start of a long winning streak.

Well Done boys!!!
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...oi oi oi!

Australia 6, Italy 0

Chris Oxspring and Ryan Rowland Smith combined on a one-hitter to give Australia its first victory of the tournament.

Brett Roneberg singled, doubled, and drove in three runs for Australia.

Italy's Guiseppe Mazzanti had Italy's only hit.

Australia will take on Japan on Wednesday.

ALTOONA CURVE - GAME NOTES FOR AUG. 17

Former Curve/Senators’ 1B/OF Brett Roneberg was the starting centerfielder for Australia in his country’s game against Italy.

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