Australia slugged a one-run victory over Chinese Taipei when international baseball came to Geelong last night
Australian pitcher Phil Stockman was under enormous pressure in the ninth inning to hold on to a cliff-hanger 11-10 victory

Asked to close down the game with an 11-9 lead, he escaped the ninth inning by striking out Feng-Ming Chen with the bases loaded after working the count to a three-balls, two-strikes situation
The 2004 Silver Medallist allowed one runner to score on a bases-loaded walk but finished the inning with three strikeouts

Both sides offered up an offensive feast combining for 25 hits, including an entertaining first inning that saw three homeruns

South Australian and 2004 Silver Medallist Tom Brice recorded one of baseball's rarest feats by hitting for the cycle (single, double, triple, homerun) in five plate appearances
Brice, the Chicago White Sox minor leaguer, drove in three of Australia's runs

Victorian Justin Huber delivered his first homerun of the series, a 400-foot shot to centre field
The Kansas City Royals first baseman from Emerald went 2-4 with a double and two-runs batted in

Luke Hughes, Brad Harman, Brett Roneberg and Matthew Kent all contributed to the hit parade with the West Australian Minnesota Twins farmhand Hughes going 2-4 with a two-runs batted in and a walk (this is incorrect as Brett did not get a hit)

The fireworks started in the first inning after Australia got on the board after a solo homerun by Huber

Chinese Taipei answered with two homeruns of their own off starting pitcher Craig Anderson
Yung-Chi Chen hit a solo homerun and two batters later Chih-Sheng Lin added his own two-run bomb to put Chinese Taipei ahead 3-1
Chen would finish 3-4 with three-runs batted in

Chin-Lung Hu added a 2-4/4-RBI performance of his own

Anderson, the 2004 Silver Medallist who signed a "AAA" deal with the Baltimore Orioles for the coming season, went four innings, giving up seven hits and striking out two before relinquishing the Twins prospect Josh Hill in the fifth inning

Australia would break the game open in the fifth inning, scoring five runs, putting the Aussies ahead 7-3

19-year old Geelong pitcher Kyle Edlich, the 2005 Gulf Coast Pitcher of the Year for the Twins in his first pro season, kept Taipei scoreless in pitching an inning before a cheering home crowd

Australian coach Jon Deeble was a relieved man after the match, believing his team should have put away Taipei once it had established a 11-6 lead

"We made it a little too close at the end and we couldn't throw strikes" he said

However, Deeble was pleased with the 13-hit batting display and the team's defence

"I thought (Craig) Anderson struggled at the start but fought back and Paul Mildren and Kyle Edlich did well to hold them scoreless" he said
"But generally our pitchers needed to do a better job in the wind, keeping the ball down in the strike zone"

Chinese Taipei starter Sung-Wei Tseng allowed all 11-runs (8 earned), striking out four and giving up 11 hits over six and 2/3 innings

Australia took a 3-1 lead in the eight-match series with Chinese Taipei in the Financial Wealth International Baseball Challenge, which continues at Melbourne Ballpark in Altona tonight (7.00 pm EST)

Australia slugged a one-run victory over Chinese Taipei in it's international baseball clash in Geelong

Pitcher Phil Stockman was under enormous pressure in the ninth inning to hold on to a cliff-hanger 11-10 victory

Asked to close down the game with an 11-9 lead, he escaped the ninth inning by striking out Feng-Ming Chen with the bases loaded after working the count to a three-balls, two-strikes situation
The 2004 silver medallist allowed one runner to score on a bases-loaded walk but finished the inning with three strikeouts

Both sides offered up an offensive feast combining for 25 hits, including an entertaining first inning that saw three homeruns, but Australia broke the game open in the fifth inning, scoring five runs to move 7-3 ahead

Australia coach Jon Deeble was a relieved man after the match, believing his team should have put away Taipei once it had established a 11-6 lead

"We made it a little too close at the end and we couldn't throw strikes" he said

However, Deeble was pleased with the 13-hit batting display and the team's defence

"I thought (Craig) Anderson struggled at the start but fought back and Paul Mildren and Kyle Edlich did well to hold them scoreless" he said
"But generally our pitchers needed to do a better job in the wind, keeping the ball down in the strike zone"

Australia took a 3-1 lead in the eight-match series with Chinese Taipei in the Financial Wealth International Baseball Challenge, which continues at Melbourne Ballpark in Altona tonight (7.30 pm EST)