Venezuela 2 – Australia 0
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Last night, Australia started a self-taught knuckleballer. Moreover, 35-year-old Phil Brassington didn’t play baseball in 2005 and was selling real estate six weeks ago.
The Aussies’ initial reliever, Peter Moylan, was listed as “someone who is expected to see most of his action as a first baseman” in the media guide. And the Australia offense mustered one hit.
In other words, Venezuela should’ve won in a rout. Embattled manager Luis Sojo’s club inched out a 2-0 victory on a second-inning solo shot by Ramon Hernandez and Omar Vizquel’s sixth-inning, bases-loaded walk. The Venezuelans advanced to the second round but didn’t hit and didn’t appease a fan base out for blowouts and blood.
“[Entering the WBC], these kids haven’t played a baseball game since last August,” Australia manager Jon Deeble said.
Sojo became a human piñata in Venezuela after Tuesday’s 11-5 loss to the Dominican Republic, and he fired back Wednesday. He said fans and media in his country “don’t know [bleep]” and held firm to those statements yesterday.
“I was [ticked],” Sojo said before the nail-biter. “They want to make the roster, they want to make the lineup, they want to manage the game. They want to play. [Bleep] them.”
Brassington put three men on in the first but escaped trouble.
“I can’t really describe it,” Brassington said. “It’s a quantum leap for me to go from that. “I’m still trying to deal with my clients over e-mail. Some of them don’t know I’m over here.”
Kelvim Escobar (one hit, 4 2/3 innings) was outstanding, and so were four Venezuelan relievers. But the team will need offense against Puerto Rico and Cuba in the next round.
“It took five front-liners for them to knock us out of the ball game,” Deeble said.
The Aussies had runners on first and third with one out in the fourth, but Dave Nilsson grounded into an inning-ending double play. Still, the Australians – who won a silver medal in the Olympics in 2004 – were in the game the entire time.
Cuba 11, Netherlands 2
In San Juan, Yoandry Garlobo went 4-for-5 with three RBIs and Cuba beat the Netherlands advance to the second round of the World Baseball Classic.
Osmany Urrutia also hit a three-run homer for Cuba (2-0), which faces Puerto Rico on Friday in a matchup of the only two undefeated teams in Group C. Puerto Rico also moved into the second round with Cuba’s victory over the Netherlands.
-AP
