Australia v Venezuela

It wasn't supposed to be this close, and if ever there was a moral victory, this probably was it
Although Venezuela prevailed on Thursday over Australia, 2-0, the losing club made this contest much more competitive than anyone could have expected

To review - On the first day of competition, the Australians lost in blowout fashion to team Italy, a club that was barely competitive in either of its games with the Dominican Republic or Venezuela
So that the matchup between the young Australians and the mighty Venezuelans was not a complete blowout comes as somewhat of a surprise

Granted, Australia has yet to score in the World Baseball Classic
But its game with the Venezuelans was interesting, and it wasn't supposed to be
You have to give the Aussies credit for that

Consider that most of these players are at rookie ball or Class A level, and that most of them, before this week, hadn't played baseball since last August
Now throw them in the batters box against the Venezuelans, many of whom played throughout the offseason in winter ball

"What we did tonight was great" Manager Jon Deeble said
"We need to carry this to the next level and be able to beat these countries
And that's a tough ballclub we played tonight"

Australia's pitching was good in the sense that it allowed only two runs to cross the plate
But control was an issue
The staff combined to walk 13 batters, including a free pass to Omar Vizquel that forced in Venezuela's second run

When knuckleballer Phil Brassington walked the first batter of the game, perhaps the sellout crowd at Disney's Wide World of Sports sensed a blowout was on the horizon
But Brassington, who 13 years ago was the fifth-round draft pick of the Royals but was hampered by injuries throughout his career, held Venezuela at bay, allowing just two hits and a run over four frames
Brassington, who these days is a real estate agent by trade - "I'm still dealing with clients over email, and I'm trying to keep them happy," he said after the game - last pitched in a competitive setting in 2002
That was his final effort to comeback after injuries had taken over
"I had accepted the fact that my career was over as any type of pitcher" Brassington said
He described his opportunity to pitch in the World Baseball Classic as "a bit of a shock"
"To step up and be around this again after such a long time, I'm really enjoying it and soaking up this kind of atmosphere, because I really didn't think it was ever going to happen for me again"

Deeble, who at one time had visions of Brassington pitching for Australia in the 2000 Athens Olympics, liked what he saw from his knuckleballer against the Venezuelans
"I thought he threw fantastic tonight" Deeble said
"I think if that game had gone on, he was getting better and better
He had a lot of nerves up there
That's the first baseball game he's pitched in six months
In the fourth inning, that ball was starting to dance pretty good
I think he was a little nervous at the start, but once he got settled into a rhythm, he was giving them a lot of troubles in the fourth inning"

The loss effectively ends the Australians' run in the World Baseball Classic
They will play the Dominican Republic on Friday night, but the game will bear no meaning in the Classic standings
The Dominicans advance to Round 2 no matter the outcome, but Australia, with two losses and no wins, will not

Still, the Australians, underdogs throughout, felt they had nothing to hang their heads about when they lost such a close one to Venezuela
"We have a philosophy that we had when we played in the Olympics" Deeble said
"It's irrelevant who you play
It's about execution
If we execute perfectly, and we don't win, there's no regret"

The last leg of the initial journey had a few more bumps than expected
But Venezuela emerged victorious against a pesky Australian team and punched its ticket into the second round of the World Baseball Classic

Backed by Ramon Hernandez's solo homer and a stingy one-hit performance from its stellar pitching staff, Venezuela ended play in 'Pool D' with a 2-0 win over Australia at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex on Thursday night

"My guys knew it was going to be tough, no matter who we played" Venezuelan manager Luis Sojo said
"Now we go to the second round and it's going to be tougher and tougher"

Having finished the round-robin format with a 2-1 record, Venezuela assured itself a runner-up finish in 'Pool D'
Even if the Dominican Republic were upset by Italy on Friday, its win Tuesday over the Venezuelans would give the Dominicans the tie-breaker edge
Thus, they would enter the second round as the 'Pool D' winner

The top two teams from each of the four pools will advance to the second round
As the 'Pool D' runner-up, Venezuela will face the 'Pool C' runner-up in its opening second-round game on March 12 in Puerto Rico
The Puerto Ricans will face Cuba on Friday to determine the final standings in 'Pool C'

"It's great, reaching the goal that we wanted to when we got here" said Venezuelan starter Kelvim Escobar, who allowed one hit and registered five strikeouts in 4-2/3 innings
"Advancing to the second round makes us feel pretty good and we're ready for the challenge"

The stinginess displayed by Escobar and the four relievers who followed him allowed the Venezuelans to emerge victorious on a night they stranded 14 runners and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position

"We didn't come through when we needed to" Sojo said
"But the most important thing is we came out with a win"

Escobar was in control from the start, striking out four of the first five batters he faced
The right-hander retired the first seven batters he faced before seeing Bradley Harman deliver Australia's only hit of the evening, a one-out single in the third-inning

Australian starter Phil Brassington, who allowed one earned runs and two hits in four innings, was nearly as effective with a large supply of knuckleballs
His only mistake came when Hernandez began the second inning by drilling an 0-1 delivery over the left field wall
Considering Brassington, who will celebrate his 37th birthday on April 19, was selling real estate within the past month, his performance was certainly better than most would have expected

After Escobar exited, Tony Armas, Gustavo Chacin, Jorge Julio and Francisco Rodriguez continued the mastery of an Australian offense that has registered just two hits in its first two games of this tournament

Australia's best scoring opportunity came in the fourth inning, when Escobar issued two of his three walks
But with runners at the corners and one out, the Venezuelan right-hander got Dave Nilsson to ground into an inning-ending double play

"I think I threw the ball very well tonight" Escobar said
"I just had a little problem with my mechanics in the last couple of innings, but I was still going strong"

When Brassington was forced to take his knuckleballs to the bench after coming within two pitches of the 65-pitch limit, the Australians brought hard-throwing Peter Moylan in and the Venezuelans had trouble adjusting
With an effectively wild approach, Moylan, whose fastball was clocked as high as 95 mph, threw just 21 of his 55 pitches for strikes
During 1-2/3 innings, he allowed a hit, recorded four strikeouts and issued five walks

But it wasn't until Juan Rivera contributed a sixth-inning two-out single that the Venezualans were able to take advantage of Moylan's control problems
He followed the Rivera single by issuing three straight walks, including one to Omar Vizquel with the bases loaded

"Our offense it's been good" Escobar said
"I think that they're swinging the bat very well, but at the same time you have to give credit to the pitching staffs of the Italian and Australian teams
They did pretty good"

The Italians limited the Venezuelans to six runs and the Australians were obviously even stingier against the likes of Bobby Abreu and Miguel Cabrera, who went a combined 1-for-7 against the Aussies

But since allowing 11 runs against the Dominicans in Tuesday's opening game, the Venezuelan pitching staff has rebounded and been as nasty as advertised
Against the Italians and Australians, they allowed just three hits and completed 18 scoreless innings

"Kelvim was unbelievable today" Sojo said
"I mean the pitching staff, it was great in the first round and I'm very glad"

Well, tie me kangaroo down sport, Australia won't ruin Venezuela's Pool party after all

For a while at Cracker Jack Field on Thursday night, this improbable band of underdog Aussies was one swing away from handing Venezuela the humiliation of dropping it to 1-2 in the 'Pool D' bracket of the World Baseball Classic

Australia came closer to the big upset than anyone dared dream before bowing, 2-0, to a surprised Venezuelan team, which advances to the second round of the tournament along with the Dominican Republic

As for Australia, if ever a team looked valiant in getting a one-hitter thrown against it for the second night in a row, it was this one

"Their guys are throwing 96 miles per hour - we haven't seen live pitching since August last year" Australia manager Jon Deeble said
"But it took five front-liners for them to knock us out of the game tonight"

Venezuela pitchers - and all Major Leaguers - Kelvim Escobar, Tony Armas Jr., Gustavo Chacin, Jorge Julio and Francisco Rodriguez needed all nine innings and 27 outs to clinch the victory

The Australians were supposed to be road kill but instead threw up a road block the Venezuelans barely managed to squeeze by

Except for the anemic hitting, the Australians didn't look anything like the team that lost to Italy, 10-0, in a mercy-rule game a day earlier
How did they go from that dismal performance to nearly knocking off mighty Venezuela?

"That's the way we expected to play last night and we didn't do it" Deeble said
"That's the way we expect Australia to play, and even though we're a young baseball country, when it comes to the years that we played this game, last night's performance was really out of character
What we did tonight was great"

This Australian team is an eclectic bunch of ballplayers, to say the least, and the sum of their parts came within a few runs of stunning one of the tournament favorites

The Venezuelans insisted it wasn't overconfidence, but you have to wonder

Most teams at this level have a manager, coaches and athletic trainers, but Australia also has a psychologist and a "party chief"
Not sure if the latter is a permanent position or a temporary role added because of the proximity to Daytona Beach and spring break, but hey, it's in the media guide

Deeble went up and down the land down under to come up with the best baseball-playing Aussies he could find
That was not an easy task since Australian baseball is years behind in the development curve compared to countries like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic
What Deeble put together is a respectable team that, while being vastly overmatched in this bracket, deserves credit for putting forth a commendable effort even if two losses and two hits are all the Australians have to show for their efforts thus far

The team has a modest amount of baseball talent to go with a part-time drummer and real estate salesman, a son of a Victorian cricket slow bowler and a couple of players from Australia's 2004 Olympic Silver Medal team

There's Dave Nilsson, a 1999 All-Star who spent eight years with the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1990's
Australia also has former Atlanta Braves lefty Damian Moss, and Kansas City Royals prospect Justin Huber, who led the Texas League in hitting last year with a .343 batting average, bats third

Against Venezuela, Deeble started right-hander Phil Brassington, a 36-year-old part-time drummer, full-time realtor and sometimes knuckleballer against a team with 11 players who have made at least one All-Star Game appearance and 19 overall
Brassington, the one-time property of the Kansas City Royals before a torn rotator cuff sent him along dusty roads to teams like the Perth Heat, Canberra Bushrangers, Brisbane Bandits and Gold Coast Cougars, didn't have the kind of night you might have expected considering the circumstances
The right-hander limited the Venezuelan lineup to a pair of hits and only one run in four innings of work
He was hardly overpowering, but his 55 mph knuckleball frustrated the hitters just the same

The Venezuelans kept squandering scoring opportunity after scoring opportunity
Say this for the Australian pitchers, they stubbornly refused to give in with a strike when a walk would do
Rather than go after the big guns in the Venezuelan lineup, the Australians issued 13 free passes while Venezuela stranded 14 baserunners
You kept waiting for a big inning, but it never came
When Venezuela did connect with men on base, it was usually a long fly ball for an out

"We understood that we couldn't throw the ball over the middle of the plate" Deeble said
"So we had to make quality pitches
But you know maybe if we didn't walk some guys, there might have been some home runs in there"

Brassington was pitching competitively for the first time since 2002
Boy, did he make up for lost time against Escobar and friends
"It's been a bit of a shock for me, actually, to step up and be around this again after such a long time" Brassington said
"But I tell you, it's been fantastic so far and I'm really, really enjoying it and soaking up this type of atmosphere because I didn't really think it was ever going to happen for me again"

Before the tournament, Brassington said he expected to go back to selling houses and playing the drums when the tournament is over
Now he's not so sure
"I'm still trying to deal with my clients over e-mail, trying to keep them happy" he said
"Some of them don't even know I'm over here
To be taken out of that and brought to this is just, for me, you know, almost surreal"

Almost indeed

"Flintoff's Focus"
Well, I don't know about you Aussie baseball supporters, but I feel a whole lot better about this gallant loss by our boys at the World Baseball Classic than I did after that agonising farce against - oh yeh, ITALY - man, that joke still ain't funny!!
Far from the nonsense of staking our credibility against the powerful "pseudo-Italians", this time we faced the even tougher assignment of containing the legitimate baseball powerhouse of Venezuela
Not only does Venezuela have a team almost entirely comprised of established major league players, but most of these are past, present or future MLB All-Stars!!
The fact that our Australian team was able to face them down over nine innings for a very gallant 0-2 defeat must rank among the greatest performances EVER by an Australian National team
Big statement? - YES! - but also one that is not far from the truth
It probably won't rank with our 2004 Olympic semi-final win over Japan because it was in a more memorable and successful cause but, really, this narrow loss to Venezuela was HUGE!
You only need a glance at the line score to understand that the highly fancied South Americans, winners of the recent Caribbean World Series, were still shifting nervously in their dugout while clinging to a tenuous one-run lead over our Aussie minnows until the sixth inning
This just after Australia had blown a great opportunity to at least tie the game with runners at first and third with one out!
We wonder if the "real" David Nilsson of a few years ago might have found a way to drive in the run instead of bouncing into an innings ending double-play? - you could bet your house on it!
Even after they doubled their lead to 2-0 in the top of the sixth, there was no sign of surrender from the Aussie camp who allowed the Venezuelans only four hits for the game
The extent of this feat was maybe best summed up by the ESPN commentator when Australia's part-time utility pitcher Peter Moylan struck out recent All-Star Maglio Ordonez - "the pharmaceuticals salesman from Melbourne has just struck out Maglio Ordonez who has a $60,000,000 contract to hit baseballs for the Detroit Tigers"
You have to pause for quite a while to think about the magnitude of that!!
Of course, we cannot and don't deny that our guys have hardly managed to make a sound offensively with only two hits from 18 innings at this tournament and, while this is never going to make us dance with joy, we must all understand the gigantic size of the task facing our fellas
Quite simply, aside from a couple who have briefly tasted major league action, most of our players are from the lower minor leagues and they are facing genuine TOP NOTCH major league pitching
In a nutshell, they have never faced pitching anything like this stuff and we could hardly expect very much more!
I think that Australia's baseball AROOS can be pretty proud of themselves today
They have certainly helped to achieve something that Manager Jon Deeble had asked for - some real credibility in the baseball world!
I'm proud of the team!!

Australia bowed out of the World Baseball Classic last night when it lost to a star-studded Venezuela team 2-0

While the team will not advance to the World Baseball Classic’s second round in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Australia provided the 10,111 fans at Disney’s Wide World of Sports stadium with a snapshot of its talent

Unlike its dismal 10-0 mercy rule loss against Italy two days earlier, Australia took the challenge right up to the Venezuelans

Starter Phil Brassington and four relievers - Peter Moylan, Adrian Burnside, Phil Stockman and Tristan Crawford - held Venezuela’s offence to two runs on four hits
Venezuela’s big three bats - Bobby Abreu, Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez - were limited to a combined one hit from 12 at bats

Backed by a solid defence, Australia was right in the game going into the final inning

Unfortunately, the Australia was unable to produce any offensive support against the five seasoned major league pitchers they faced
And, the Australians had never faced sustained barrage of pitchers who repeatedly hit the radar gun at 96 miles per hour
Venezuela’s pitching staff, spearheaded by starter Kelvim Escobar and backed by relievers Tony Armas, Gustavo Chacin, Jorge Julio and Francisco Rodriguez, shutout Australia on one hit

The Venezuelan pitching staff struck out 13 in an over-powering performance

Short stop Brad Harman’s third inning single was the only hit the Venezuelan pitchers allowed to complete the second straight shut out of the Australians in the World Baseball Classic

Venezuela designated hitter Ramon Hernandez gave his country a 1-0 lead when he led off the second inning with a solo home run to left field against knuckleballer Brassington

It was one of only two hits allowed by Brassington during his four innings of work, an outing that drew high praise from Manager Jon Deeble
“I thought he threw the ball fantastically” Deeble enthused
“I think that if that game had not had the pitch count restrictions, Phil would have got better and better and better
By the fourth inning the ball was starting to dance pretty good and he was starting to throw it past the batters
And, he showed a lot of nerves out there and that’s the first game he’s pitched in for probably six months”

Australia had its best opportunity to break the shackles and post its first run of the World Baseball Classic in the top of the fourth when Trent Durrington got on base on a fielder’s choice and then stole second and third base
When Justin Huber walked, Australia had runners at first and third with one out and its best hitter - David Nilsson - at the plate
But, Nilsson hit into an inning ending double play

It proved to be the last time for the game that Australia had a base runner in scoring position

Venezuela added its second run in the sixth when Moylan walked in a run after striking out Ordonez and Hernandez to start the inning
Moylan, who hit 98 mph and repeatedly hit 96 mph, then gave up a single to Juan Rivera before his control wavered and he walked the next three batters

Burnside, Stockman and Crawford kept the Australians in the match as they threw a combined one hit baseball over the final 3.1 innings

However, the Venezuela pitching staff more than matched the Australians as they retired the last 14 Australian batters to come to the plate

While Deeble was dejected that Australia could not eek out a couple of runs to take the game and keep alive its hopes of advancing to the second round, he took solace from the way the team battled

Deeble said the performance was more in keeping with how Australia goes about its baseball
“That is the way we expect Australia to play
The performance against Italy was really out of character” Deeble said
“What we did tonight against a tough ball club was great
We need to take this to the next level and be able to come out and come back and beat these countries
It took five front liners for them to knock us out of the game tonight, so that’s credit to our guys
Those guys were throwing consistently 96 mph
We haven’t seen that sort of pitching”

After Venezuela handed a six-zip shutout to the Italian team that had soundly trounced the Australian squad the night before, no one expected the Australia-Venezuela matchup at the World Baseball Classic to be anything but a rout

No one expected the Australian National team, even though it is half of the team that nearly won the Gold at the Athens Olympics, to stand a chance against the blazing bats and powerful pitching of the Venezuelan nine

As night dropped down on Disney's Wide World of Sports Stadium, the Venezuelan fans warmed up - besides the flags, horns, whistles and overwhelming enthusiasm that seem to be common to all Central American fans, the Venezuelans had assembled a complete percussion section of djembes , shakers, and cowbells to celebrate their team's overwhelming triumph

Even the sportswriters were preparing for a short night, figuring that Venezuela would score tens runs in two innings, invoking the WBC "Mercy Rule" and ending the game in under an hour

The Australians, however, were not willing to cooperate

Propelled by the inspired pitching of knuckleballer Phil Brassington (who came out of a four-year retirement two months ago to join the club,) Australia showed that they had talent, speed and most of all the drive to win regardless of what the odds were or were supposed to be, fighting the Venezuelans for every pitch through every inning

In the end, Australia came within a couple of base hits of beating the Venezuelan powerhouse
What was supposed to be a short evening turned out to be a display of the tensest, toughest baseball played in the series to date

The game opened with Brassington walking Omar Vizquel, who tried to steal second but was cut off by a throw from catcher Mike Collins
Second baseman Trent Durrington charged Vizquel, then flipped the ball to first baseman Justin Huber who was closing from behind
Vizquel sprinted toward second, but before he got there Huber threw to shortstop Brad Harmon, who made the tag at second
It was a perfectly executed rundown, but no one really saw it is a harbinger; it seemed more a lucky break
Carlos Guillen, up next, grounded out to third, then Bobby Abreu, one of Venezuela's big guns, slammed a single to left field
Miquel Cabrera drew a walk, but Venezuelan right fielder Magglio Ordonez hit into a force play, ending the Venezuelan first

The Australians came up and went down in order, much as everyone had expected

Venezuela started the scoring as DH Ramon Hernandez blasted the second pitch of the second inning over the left field wall
However, Venezuela couldn't get a rally going as the next three batters went down in succession

Australia again proved unable to hit Venezuelan cannon Kelvim Escobar, who was firing 97 mph fastballs past the hapless Aussie batters
Another three up-three down inning, and the Venezuelans again came to bat

Everyone was expecting the floodgates to burst soon
The Aussies had been lucky, perhaps, but how long could it continue?

Aussie pitcher Phil Brassington continued to throw tough pitches in the third - the Venezuelan batters had a hard time making solid contact
First to bat, Omar Vizquel hit a grounder to Glenn Williams at short
Williams' throw was a bit off, but first baseman Justin Huber was able to snag it and tag Vizquel in the basepath
Carlos Guillen grounded to third, Bobby Abreu drew a walk and was left stranded as Miguel Cabrera was thrown out in a close play at first after hitting a hit a short bouncer to third

Tom Brice opened the Australia third with a hard two-hop ground out to second, followed by Bradley Harman who smacked a single up the middle
Catcher Mike Collins went down swinging, and on the final strike Harman broke for second
The throw from Venezuelan catcher Henry Blanco was high, and if a tag was made only the umpire saw it, but the call was "Out at second," which ended the third with neither team able to score

Phil Brassington came out throwing the same hard-to-hit knuckleballs in the fourth, stymieing the Venezuelan batters
Magglio Ordonez was out on long fly out to center, then DH Ramon Hernandez struck out swinging
Juan Rivera drew a walk, then Henry Blanco hit a bouncer to Bradley Harman at short
Harman flipped the ball to second-baseman Trent Durrington for the force and Venezuela was again held scoreless

It was about at this point that the members of the media began shooting questioning looks at one another
It was obvious that the predicted quick blow-out wasn't happening
Was the Aussie team just getting incredibly lucky every inning?
The Australian team had entered the series with huge handicaps - while most of the other teams were packed with players from professional leagues, playing at the highest levels of competition, most of the Aussie squad hadn't played a game in six months or more, as there is no professional baseball in Australia

Pitcher Phil Brassington had been retired for years - six weeks before the Classic started, he was selling real estate in Canberra
Now he was striking out some of the best hitters in the entire baseball world

While the game thus far had been close, the Aussie handicap seemed too much to overcome
How much longer could the Aussies delay defeat?

Center-fielder Trent Oeltjen drew a walk to open the Aussie fourth, and Trent Durrington dropped a beautiful bunt down the first-base line to advance him
Unfortunately Oeltjen hesitated, thinking it might roll foul, and was thrown out at second
Seemingly spurred on by the missed opportunity, Durrington began taking increasingly aggressive leads off of first base
Escobar threw a ball to batter Justin Huber, and Durrington broke for second, sliding in headfirst just ahead of the tag
The Aussie fans, though few in number, showed their own noise-making abilities, raising up the chant "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi ,Oi!"
Venezuelan pitcher Kelvim Escobar tried twice to catch Durrington off second base, but on both occasions Durrington dove back with millimeters to spare
On Escobar's next throw to the plate, Durrington took off for third, beating the throw as Huber took ball four, putting runners on first and third
Eyebrows shot up in the press box once again - this wasn't the Aussie team that lost so badly to Italy
Still, it was only a heroic effort by a single player so far - Venezuela was still Venezuela, after all
Designated hitter Dave Nilsson, one of the veterans of the Athens Olympic team, stepped to the plate, to try to capitalize on the best situation the Aussies had seen since the start of the series
Unfortunately, Nilsson hit an easy grounder to second - Scutaro flipped the ball to Vizquel covering the bag, who gunned it to Guillen at first for the double play, snuffing out the Aussie drive

People in the press box, who had, not noticing, crept to the edges of their seats, slouched back

Australia opened the fifth hitting hard but to no effect
Third baseman Glenn Williams opened with a long foul ball to Juan Rivera in left
Brett Roneberg walked on four straight pitches, and left fielder Tom Brice drove a long fly down the left field line, which Rivera caught just inside foul territory
Here Venezuela brought in right-hander Tony Armas to replace Kelvim Escobar, who was near the WBC 65-pitch limit
Armas promptly struck out Brad Harman to end the inning

It seemed Aussie pitcher Peter Moylan might have found his rhythm at the beginning of the sixth, as he opened by striking out Magglio Ordonez and DH Ramon Hernandez
Then he gave up a single up the middle to Juan Rivera
Rivera stole second, getting hit in the head by the throw from the plate
Australia hoped for an interference call, but Rivera was awarded the base
Moylan then walked the next two batters, loading the bases
Again the glances flew around the press box - were the Venezuelans finally about to break it wide open?
It seemed so, as Moylan gave up a base on balls to Omar Vizquel, walking in a run
The Aussies called on Olympic veteran Adrian Burnside to pitch to the rest of the Venezuelan order
Burnside forced Carlos Guillen to fly out to Roneberg in left, getting the Australians out of the inning with only a single run scored against them

Venezuelan pitcher Tony Armas retired the Aussies in order in the bottom of the sixth

The seventh opened with Bobby Abreu striking out swinging
Miguel Cabrera walked, then Ordonez hit a fly out to left
DH Ramon Hernandez hit a single to center field, advancing the runner
Juan Rivera walked, loading the bases, and people in the press box yet again wondered if this would be the big Venezuelan inning
And yet again, Australia survived, as Henry Blanco hit a fly ball to left, which Oeltjen fielded easily

At this point the attitude in the press box began to change - people started looking up the rules for tiebreakers in the series
Could the Australians really win?
Which teams would advance if they did?
Venezuela had seemed assured of a berth in the next round
But if Australia had a big inning and beat them - and if Australia could beat Venezuela, could they beat the Dominicans?
The Australian team would need to win by seven runs to eliminate Venezuela from the series, which seemed impossible, but two hours earlier it had been impossible to imagine that the game would still be going on now

Venezuelan hurler Armas struck out Jason Huber to open the Australian seventh
Then Venezuelan manager Luis Sojo brought in left-hander Gustavo Chacin (who pitched 34 games for the major-league Toronto Blue Jays in 2005) to face Aussie DH David Nilsson
Obviously the Venezuelans were taking the Australians very seriously at this point
Nilsson grounded out, as did Glenn Williams; Australia failed to score yet again

Australia called up right-hander Phil Stockman to pitch in the eighth, and he continued with the Aussie 's strong defensive game, retiring the first two batters he faced, giving up a walk, and then retiring Bobby Abreu on a fly out

Australia was running out of chances
They had certainly showed that they could contain Venezuela's big hitters, but they had yet to make a dent in Venezuela's pitching

Unfortunately for Australia, the eighth inning brought no changes there
Brett Roneberg struck out swinging
The Aussies brought in pinch-hitter Luke Hughes - the Venezuelans responded by summoning right-hander Jorge Julio, who struck out Hughes and Brad Harman after him

Australia continued with excellent pitching in the top of the ninth, as Phil Stockman struck out both Cabrera and Ordonez before giving up a walk to Ramon Hernandez
The next batter, Juan Rivera, lined out to replacement left fielder Paul Rutgers, ending the Venezuelan ninth

No team had yet been able to control Venezuela's offensive Machine - Australia had held them to two runs in nine innings
But now it was do or die for the Australians - they had three outs to make three runs

The Venezuelans, finding themselves quite unexpectedly in a tense situation when they had expected to go home early, pulled out all the stops - they brought in yet another big-league pitcher, calling up closer Francisco Rodriguez, who led the American League with 45 saves in the 2005 season
Rodriguez performed as expected, getting Michael Kent to fly out, and then striking out Trent Oeltjen and Trent Durrington

Venezuela won the game 2-0, advancing in the series

However, Australia was equally as big a winner, having shown the world that they could compete with, and come within a few hits of beating an All-Star-studded lineup like Venezuela's

Though coming from a country where most people do not even know how baseball is played, the Australians managed to field a team on par with the rest of the world

After the painful defeat at the hands of the Italians, the game against Venezuela tasted as sweet as defeat ever could

After the game Australian Manager Jon Deeble explained - "What we did tonight was great. We haven't seen live pitching since August, but it took five front-liners to knock us out of the game tonight"

Asked what he told his players to keep them from being intimidated by the strong Venezuelan club, Deeble replied - "We have a philosophy on our team that it is irrelevant who you're playing, it's about execution
If we execute perfectly and don't win, it's no regret
If we execute perfectly, we are going to be in every ball game
"It's Australian culture, I think, too, which is why last night's game against Italy was so out of character
We're going to give everyone a battle every time we take the field"