Did not play
Hand injury

The Australian baseball team have assured themselves a place in the World Cup Quarter-Finals after yet another thrilling ‘walk-off’ victory in Taipei on Sunday
The win against Korea represents the third time in the past four days that the Aussies have prevailed in their final at-bat, and now puts them in outright second place in Pool B

The remarkable victory came with two-out in the bottom of the ninth inning when West Australian Ben Risinger drove a pitch over Korean centerfielder Lee Seung Hwa’s head, scoring Justin Huber from second base and breaking a 1-1 tie

Huber, who ignited the game-winning rally with a one-out double, was bemused by the Australian team’s ability to execute consistently with the game on the line
“I have played a lot of games for a lot of teams and I have never been involved in a streak like this before” Huber said shortly after scoring the winning run
“Today’s game was tough, I mean both the Korean pitchers had pretty nasty stuff, so to come away with another win like that is huge” he said

On the mound for Australia 24-year-old left hander Adam Blackley was the game’s star early, shutting out Korea for the fist six innings
Blackley, who was perfect through four innings and retired 13 of the first 14 batters he faced, used his off-speed pitches effectively keeping the Korean hitters off balance all afternoon

And it looked like the young Victorian southpaw might be in line for the win, when Australian second baseman Luke Hughes broke a 0-0 deadlock with his second home run of the tournament in the bottom of the sixth inning
Hughes, who two days ago hit the dramatic walk-off shot against Venezuela, continued his torrid display of power, this time with a line shot that just cleared the left field wall

However after getting the first two hitters to ground out in the top of the seventh inning, Blackley allowed consecutive hits to Koreans, Son Si Hyun and Song San, that tied the game and led to the end of the line for the lefty

But despite the potential go-ahead run standing on second base, reliever Brendan Wise halted the Korean progress, and then combined with Adam Bright over the final two frames adding further credence to the already spectacular World Cup performances from Australia’s bullpen

Ben Risinger’s show stopper however, will remain the headline story of the afternoon
Carrying a couple of niggling injuries, and after taking a nasty knock to his left hand when he was hit by a pitch to lead off the seventh inning, Risinger faced the arduous task of stepping in against flame throwing Korean reliever, Hwang Doo Sung
With two strikes and two outs, Hwang, who had already struck out four of the six batters he had faced, painted a 93mph fastball on the inside corner against Risinger, a pitch that the the Korean hurler thought was close enough to be called strike three
But the only opinion that mattered was that of home plate umpire Williams Higgins, and when he ruled the pitch a ball inside, Risinger made the most of the opportunity, belting the very next pitch over the drawn in outfield and securing his country’s ticket to the playoffs

Next up, Australia will play Germany on Tuesday in a game they are expected to win comfortably before facing off against Canada in their final preliminary round match-up on November 14

Australia’s Adam Blackley tossed six strong innings and Luke Hughes connected for a home run as the Aussies won their fourth straight slipping past Korea 2-1 in Group B action on Sunday

Hughes solo shot in the sixth opened the scoring as Blackley and Korean starter Won Jun Chang both were pitching their 'A' stuff
The Aussie left-hander blanked the Koreans the first six frames while Chang opened the game with five shutout innings

Justin Huber and Ben Risinger – who drove home the game-winner – both had a pair of hits in the low-scoring affair

Ji-Wan Na, Si-Hyun Son, and San Song led the Koreans with two hits apiece

Australia (4-1) will return to action on Tuesday against a German team that struggled in an ugly 2-0 win over Thailand (0-5) yesterday
The Aussies will finish their Group B schedule on Wednesday with a matchup against Canada (3-2)