Following the culmination of the U12 and U18 teams
qualifying for their respective World Cup’s Australia has catapulted into the
top 10 of the WBSC World Rankings for the first time since 2012.
Australia’s U18 team was unstoppable during their qualifier,
with their pitchers striking out 35 hitters and only giving up two earned runs
in 25 innings of work, while the offence continually dominated. Australia hit
.350 as a team, with 36 hits and 36 RBI across four games, as well as an on
base percentage of .493.
Our U12 team had to make the unenviable trip to Guam where
they took on the host nation and American Samoa for a spot in the U12 World
Cup. After an early loss to Guam and two victories over American Samoa,
Australia needed to defeat Guam twice in order to qualify. A thrilling extra
innings win over Guam gave Australia a chance, and that was all they needed,
defeating Guam in dominant fashion in the final game of the tournament to seal
qualification.
Another incredible performance which recently lifted Australia’s
world ranking was claiming the Silver Medal at the U23 World Cup in November
2016.
Baseball Australia’s High Performance Manager Glenn Williams
is excited for Australia to get back into the top 10 baseball nations in the
world.
“There has been a lot of hard work from a lot of people
behind the scenes to give our players the best opportunity to succeed,”
Williams said.
“It’s a great achievement for us to climb to 10th
in the world, we’ve had a plan all along to attend international events with
ranking points, and it’s great to have success leading up to such an important
international tournament cycle.”
March 2017 sees another chance for Australia to increase
their World Ranking, with the World Baseball Classic (WBC) taking place in
Tokyo. Australia will play #1 ranked Japan, #5 ranked Cuba and #18 ranked
China. One win at the WBC will guarantee qualification for the next WBC, while
two wins will see Australia progress to the second round of the tournament for
the first time ever.
Stay tuned to the Baseball
Australia website for all of your World Baseball Classic and U12/U18 World
Cup information.