Result
Australia - 11 to 6

Australia's Record
3 wins - 2 losses

Brett's Fielding Position and the Batting Order
Playing centrefield
Batting at #2

Brett's Statistics - Game
Batting - 2 hit from 4 at-bats - 2 x HOME RUNS
------------------2 x runs-driven-in
------------------2 x run scored
------------------1 x walk
Fielding - 2 put-outs

Brett's Plate Appearances
First at-bat
???handed pitcher
Bases empty - one down
Walk
Out on a double-play hit by the next Australian batter
Second at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Bases empty - two down
And what the television commentators said:-
"that pitch is driven deep down the leftfield line"
"and it hits up high on the foul pole and bounces back into the field and that's a home run to Brett"
HOME RUN
......and 1 x RBI

Third at-bat
Righthanded pitcher
Led off the innings
The count was '2 x balls - 0 x strikes'
Hit high and deep into right-centrefield
HOME RUN
......and 1 x RBI
And what the television commentators said:-
"and that's another home run to Roneberg"
"back-to-back shots by Brett"

Fourth at-bat
???handed pitcher
Runner at second base - one down
Ground ball to the first-baseman - runner advanced to third base
Out PO3
Fifth at-bat
Runner at second base - two down
Popped up on the infield
Out F3

Email from Brett
Well, another game has passed and Australia now has another victory - this being a little scarier than the first but good none the less
We played against the host team Greece, and before we knew it the score was 4-0 (down) in the second inning!!
We did end up coming back and winning 11-6 but it wasn't the start we wanted and it put a few guys on edge
We battled though and ended up finishing stronger than they did
I had a great game going 2 for 4 with a walk and two home runs!!
Needless to say I was pretty pumped up with it all and to know it put us where we are is great
Now, where we are is a great thing
From what my Manager told me this morning, if we win today we are guaranteed to go to the Semi Finals and that would put us one win away from the Medal round
So today is huge in saying that if we win we can save our best pitcher for the first playoff game in which a win would send us to the Gold Medal game
But that is all a long way off still
We play the Netherlands today and we are going to go at them with everything we have!
Should be fun and I hope you get to watch on television somewhere
Will write again tomorrow after the game
Bye

Pre-Game Notes
Article from the Cairns Post

Six teams still in hunt for semifinals play

Heading into Friday's action, six teams are still in the hunt for the medal round - TPE, CAN, JPN, AUS, CUB and NED.

Preliminary games for Friday are:-
TPE vs. ITA
Chinese Taipei (2-2) will face Italy (0-4) in the first game.
Italy's starting pitching has been solid, keeping it in games against foes Australia and the Netherlands before the bullpen came in.
Italy was down only two runs against Australia before losing 6-0 and was leading against the Netherlands in the fifth inning before being drubbed 10-4.
Tapei will try to bounce back from a tough loss against Cuba.
JPN vs. CAN
The second game sees a battle of favourites with unbeaten Canada (4-0) playing Japan (3-1).
After winning an emotional match against Cuba on Tuesday, Japan faltered against Australia, losing 9-4.
It will look for retribution against the Canadians whose pitching has yielded only three runs the entire tournament.
AUS vs. GRE
Winners of their last two games, Australia (2-2) will try to keep its medal hopes alive against host nation Greece (0-4).
Australia's pitching and offense are clicking at the right time and should fare well against Greece.
The Olympic debutantes will have both national and personal pride on the line and will try to act as spoiler for the Australians.
CUB vs. NED
Cuba (3-1) rebounded nicely from its third-ever Olympic loss to Japan by drubbing Chinese Taipei the following night.
It will now try to keep the Netherlands (2-2), Europe's lone medal hope, at bay in the final game of the day.
So far the Netherlands has exceeded most people's expectations, playing well against top teams such as Japan, and defeating teams it needed to beat such as Greece and Italy.

Game Reports
AUSSIES ACCOUNT FOR UNKNOWN HOSTS 11-6

Another extremely important win for Australia's baseball 'A-ROOS' overnight with, what the scoreboard shows as, a comfortable 11-6 victory over the host nation Greece... GREECE!?

That's right, we need to remind ourselves that Olympic hosts get to enter a team into every competition, but Greek baseball.
What the heck is that?

We know they stunned the world with their incredible recent success in the European Nations Soccer Cup, but everyone knows that the Greeks love soccer, even if they have rarely won at it in the past... but baseball?

Apparently they had to get a little "creative" with their rules for qualification to represent Greece in Olympic baseball after sending out for applications to anyone of any decent baseball standard who
------has a remotely sounding Greek surname
------has had any sort of relationship with any Greek person
------who started shaving before the age of 12
------who has ever done Zorba's dance
------who owns a Demis Roussos record OR
------who has ever worked in a fruit market.

OK, we apologise for the pathetic racial stereotypes, but how else do we explain how Greece managed to cobble together a pretty competitive team?
The reality of the situation (as we knew of course) is that just about all of their players are US born "Greeks" and most of these have played professional baseball at some level in the US professional leagues... some at pretty high level!

Of course Australia would give this "rag tag" bunch a flogging wouldn't we?

Well, it probably looked comfortable in the end, but this important game was WAY too close for comfort for WAY too long!

But then, although we know very little about their pedigree, we only need to glance at the games so far at these Olympics to see how dangerous they have been, especially with narrow losses to Cuba (4-5) and to Canada (0-2).

So in this context we should be pretty happy to have escaped with the very significant victory to maintain our medal hopes.

And, if anyone thinks that the game wasn't nerve wracking for Australia, let us remind you that we trailed 0-4 after two innings, then 4-5 after six innings on our way to being out-hit 10-14... only a late avalanche of runs from the 'A-ROOS' allowed us to breathe easily!

Following his fine start in the opening game against Cuba, Craig Anderson was "Olympic torched" by the Greeks today as we failed to get a quality start for the first time in the tournament.

Manager Jon Deeble didn't take to long to entrust young stars Rich Thompson and Ryan Rowland-Smith with the ball and, although they did not escape unscathed, they did an admirable job to keep the Australian boat afloat in a high-pressure game... top effort lads!

Then, with the game well in hand, there was time to allow Graeme Lloyd to get out one lefty, then for Wayne Ough to close the victory in style.

If we had concentrated on our pitching during the early games, then we would start to turn our attention to our batting recently as they seem to be settling nicely into the competition with most of our lineup making solid contact... although we would ask them to PLEASE score earlier in games so that our fingernails can last the Olympic distance!

Hardly any need to keep mentioning David Nilsson who remains the focal point of our hitting with another hit, walk and RBI today in a "modest" performance for him.

However, headlining the offence today was a young man from Queensland who may yet be the man to take over from Nilsson's considerable mantle when his career comes to an end not too far down the track, the pride of Cairns, Brett Roneberg.

For Australian baseball fans Roneberg seems to have been around forever, but he is now reaching the prime of his career at 25yo and, after several years working hard in the US pro leagues, he may just be on the verge of a well deserved breakthrough.

Australian baseball insiders have long been aware of Brett's special talents and he has always been an standout performer in National competition and for his country.

The 2004 Helms Award winner certainly won't be forgotten by the Greeks after his matching pair of majestic home runs last night... WOW!

It was also a nice moment for two of Australia's most decorated and popular veterans who joined Roneberg in supplying the fireworks for Australia last night, Sydney slugger Brendan Kingman and Queensland's adopted US star Paul Gonzalez.
'Slugga' (3RBI's) and 'Gonzo' (2RBI's) are no longer professional players, as a rarity at this level that may not be seen again, but they have produced cameo long balls to leave their mark on their final Olympic Games appearances.
Let's hope that they have more yet to offer before these games come to an end... they would love a medal of any colour!

The consistent Fingleson and Williams also contributed two-hit games for Australia.

Not too much to individualise about the Greek players apart from home run hitters Kavourias 3-4 (3RBI's) and leadoff man Maestrales 2-4 (RBI).

None of the five hurlers they used were particularly impressive, nor did any last longer than starter Zavaras who was tugged after just 2.2 innings pitched... yet they still out-hit Australia 14-10... baseball, go figure!

One last word about our Italian friends who emerged from a winless tournament to upset our rivals Chinese Taipei 5-4 last night to enable Australia to take control of its own destiny in the tournament.

We are now in "pole position" to make the semi-finals and we really SHOULD!

But why is it that we always feel nervous when facing the 'orangemen' of the Netherlands who have delighted in upsetting the Australian apple-cart so often in the past?

We can start thinking about semi-finals once we exorcise the 'Dutch demons' tonight... not before!

Aussie baseballers home against Greece

Rallying from a 4-0 deficit with home runs, Australia improved to 3-2 in the highest-scoring game of the tournament and moved into fourth place by beating Greece, eliminating the host nation from medal contention.

Brett Roneberg (Red Sox) hit a pair of solo home runs and Brendan Kingman added a three-run homer during a five-run seventh inning as Australia came from behind for its third straight victory while keeping Greece as the lone winless team.

Tied at 5-5 in the seventh inning, Australia put together five hits off Greek relievers Sean Spencer (Orioles) and Pete Sikaras (Diamondbacks) to take its first lead of the game.
Gavin Fingleson's RBI single broke the tie and was helped along by another RBI hit from former big leaguer David Nilsson.
The big hit came from Kingman, the former Mariners farmhand, who launched a three-run shot over the center-field wall off Sikaras that put Australia on top 10-5.

Each team would trade runs in the eighth inning before Australia closed the game out in the ninth.

Lefthander Ryan Rowland-Smith (Mariners) pitched 2-1/3 innings of relief to pick up the win for Australia, his second of the tournament.

Spencer took the loss for Greece after allowing two runs on two hits in 1-2/3 innings of work.

Fingleson, Roneberg and Glenn Williams (Blue Jays) had two hits apiece to lead Australia while Greece was led by Jim Kavourias (Marlins), who batted 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
Nick Markakis (Orioles), Greece's leading hitter, also had two hits.

Greece came out on the offensive early with three runs in the first inning off Australia starter Craig Anderson (Mariners).
Cory Harris (Orioles) had a RBI single and Kavourias drove in two runs with a base hit as Greece took its first lead of the tournament.

Greece went ahead 4-0 in the second inning as Peter Maestrales (Newark, independent) knocked a solo home run to left center.

Anderson gave up eight hits and four runs in just 2-1/3 innings.

The Australians would cut the lead to just one run in the bottom of the third on a two-run homer from Paul Gonzalez and a solo shot from Roneberg.

Greece extended the lead back to two runs in the fifth on back-to-back doubles from Kavourias and Peter Rasmussen.

However, Australia tied it up in the bottom half as Roneberg hit his second solo home run of the night and Nilsson walked, advanced on a double and scored on a RBI from Thomas Brice (White Sox).

Greece meets Italy before finishing its schedule against Japan.

Baseballers outright 4th after win over Greece

Australia moved into outright fourth place in baseball when scoring an impressive 11-6 come-from-behind win over host nation Greece.

The Greek batters came out swinging from Australia's Craig Anderson's opening pitch and scored four unanswered runs in the first two innings including a home run to lead off batter Peter Maestrales in the second inning.

Despite the early setback, the Australians maintained their self belief and fired off three runs in the third inning including home runs to left hand batters, Paul Gonzales and Brett Roneberg.

Greece then regained the initiative with a single run at the top of the sixth before the Australians launched their winning assault at the bottom of the inning.
Centre fielder, Brett Roneberg, launched the second of his two home runs for the match, catcher Dave Nilsson was walked and Glenn Williams slammed the first of two doubles before Tom Brice drove in Nilsson to score and level the scores at 5-all.

In the seventh innings, Australia produced a series of great defensive plays including a put-out to Nilsson at home base from Williams to keep Greece scoreless.

Then Australia put the match out of Greece's sight with five runs at the bottom of the seventh to open up a 10-5 lead.
Gavin Fingleson batted in Brett Tamburrino, Nilsson scored Fingleson with a smart bunt before Brendan Kingman slammed a three run homer to score Nilsson and Williams.

"That was a great win for us tonight," beamed head coach Jon Deeble.
"When we were behind, we didn't panic. We just out and executed the small things right and we were rewarded," he added.

Left arm pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith was rewarded with his second pitching win after Anderson was relieved by Richard Thompson after two and one third innings.

"Craig has had a sore throat over the past two days and wasn't been feeling well," explained Deeble.

Australia has now scored 26 runs in their last 20 innings at bat in three games.

Australia plays fifth place Netherlands tomorrow with John Stephens the starting pitcher.

Power hitting brings Aussies home

Brett Roneberg hit two home runs as Australia defeated host nation Greece 11-6 in their final Olympic baseball preliminary match in Athens today.

First baseman Brendan Kingman and left fielder Paul Gonzalez also belted homers as the Australians recovered from a three-run deficit in the first inning.

The home team's hopes were lifted as they raced to a 4-0 lead after two innings but Australia's power-hitting came to the fore in the third inning when centre-fielder Ronenberg and Gonzalez claimed homers, Gonzalez's hit bringing in Craig Lewis from first base as well.

Midway through the sixth inning Greece led 5-3 but scores were tied by the bottom of the sixth after Roneberg's second home run and a stolen run by David Nilsson, who was walked before working his way around the diamond.

Australia walked away with the match in the seventh inning when Kingman scored his homer with two other men on base, and Brett Tamburrino scored on a Gavin Fingleson hit and Fingleson later got home himself on a Graeme Lloyd hit.

Leading 10-5, both teams scored runs in the eighth dig but the match was over at the top of the ninth when Greece failed to score the required five runs to make the Australians bat again.

Australia is now fourth in its group with a 3-2 win-loss record with must-win matches against Canada and The Netherlands to come.

The top four teams in each eight-nation group advance to the play-off round.

Baseballers stay on course

Australia beat Greece 11-6 in Olympic baseball overnight to be placed fourth on the preliminary group table.

The Australians have now played five games and have two more, against the Netherlands and Canada, to see out the preliminary round.

Australia eliminates Greece from medal contention

The previous Olympic host eliminated the current Olympic host from the medal round as Australia (3-2) pounded Greece (0-5) 11-6 at the Olympic Baseball Centre at the Helliniko Olympic Complex.

Unlike previous games, Greece made its opponent pay with timely hitting.

By the second inning Greece had already tied its Olympic total with four runs, three coming in the first.
Three straight singles off of Aussie starter Craig ANDERSON put Australia in an early 3-0 rut.
A home run by Peter MAESTRALES (GRE) did not help Australia's cause either.

Yet the team that had upset medal favourite Japan two days earlier showed confidence and patience by slowly dissecting its opponent and then striking when the iron was hot.
The ball was carrying much further than in previous games on Field 2 and it showed in the Australian half of the third inning.
A two run shot by Paul GONZALEZ (AUS) and a solo homer by Brett RONEBERG (AUS) capped off a frame that saw Australia pull within one run at 4-3.

The Greece offence showed flashes again in the sixth, with Peter RASMUSEN (GRE) driving in James KAVOURIAS (GRE).

The cushion would not be enough, though.

Australia tacked on two runs in the sixth to tie the game at 5-5, and then five runs in the bottom of the seventh to put the game away.
The second run of the inning came when slow footed catcher David NILSSON drag bunted for a base hit, scoring Gavin FINGLESON from third base.

Australia defeats Greece by 5 points

Australia defeated Greece by a solid five runs in their fifth game of the Olympic Games.

Strong pitching efforts by Craig Anderson, Richard Thompson and Ryan Rowland-Smith secured the win for the Aussies.

Tonight's game is against Netherlands, and a victory over the Dutch team should secure a place in the medal round.

LETS GO AUSSIES, LETS GO!!! LETS GO AUSSIES LETS GO!!!

Baseballers down hosts!

Australia has continued its resurgence in the baseball competition, and recorded a solid 11-6 victory over Greece to keep its medal hopes alive.

A seventh inning explosion secured the victory, with The Netherlands (2-3) and Canada (4-1) the two remaining fixtures for the Aussies (3-2) in the round-robin phase.

Australian pitcher Craig Anderson made a shaky start, allowing three straight singles as the host nation raced to a 3-0 lead in the first inning.

Greece, without a win in the competition, extended its lead by one in the second inning and an upset was on the cards.

But by the third inning Australia had found some of the form that had seen them dismantle the highly rated Japanese two days earlier, and closed the gap to 4-3.

With the score locked at 5-5 in the seventh, the more fancied Australians finally broke the contest open with a five-run effort, including a four-run shot from Ben Kingman.

Ryan Rowland Smith took the win - his second for the tournament - although the Aussies needed five pitchers to put the Greeks away.

Comments
Comments from Brett RONEBERG (AUS) and John DEEBLE (AUS) after Australia beat Greece 11-6 in the Men's Preliminaries.

Brett RONEBERG (AUS) - centrefielder
On the win against Japan (Wednesday, 18 August) in terms of confidence
"That was huge. It's always good to be on the right track."
On their comeback from 4-0 down
"It's not fun to get down 4-0 like that. We can hit and that's what we did."
On the seventh inning
"Good at bats are contagious."

Jon DEEBLE (AUS) - manager
On being able to hit further than previous days
"The ball was carrying to left field and right field but not to the centre; it was tough to defend."
On Australia's performance in the Olympic tournament
"We really wanted to win against Chinese Taipei but they threw big league quality pitchers against us."
On aspirations for the Olympic tournament
"We're here to win a gold medal, not silver or bronze.
On comparing their performance in Athens to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games
"We are a lot better prepared and right now we're in a better position."