Photo by IBAF
Australia makes the most of 9 hits in 9-4 victory over the Czech Republic for game 2 of the Super Round Robin at the 21U IBAF World Cup.
Australia and the Czech Republic both had scoring chances on Friday night, but it was the Australian side that was able to capitalize as it pulled out a 9-4 win at Taichung Stadium. The Czech Republic out-hit Australia ten to nine, but also stranded 13 runners on base.
The lead stayed with Australia after the first, when they scored one run on an RBI single by Guy Edmonds. Australia added two more runs in the top of the third when Jacob Younis stole home and Edmonds hit a solo home run.
Australia increased its lead with five runs in the fourth. A clutch ground out scored Adam Silva to open the scoring in the frame. Some costly Czech Republic errors and a single to Robbie Perkins helped pad Australia’s lead 8-0.
Three Czech runs crossed the plate in the bottom half of the seventh, making the score 9-4. An error, a wild pitch, and a groundout by Tomas Junec set off a Czech rally, but Josh Silvi got Richard Sazavsky to fly out to end the inning. The rest of game remained scoreless, with a final score of 9-4 Australia.
Guy Edmonds produced two RBIs on two hits for Australia. He singled in the first inning and homered in the third. 17-year-old Lachlan Wells racked up six strikeouts in the Australia win. He tossed four innings of shutout ball and allowed only four hits.
Manager Tony Harris was happy with the teams performance, "We played a good game last night, the team had aggressive offense and Lachlan Wells pitched a nice game. Tonight we will keep the bats swinging, run the bases hard and hopefully get out of there with another win".
Australia will play South Korea tonight at 6:30pm (8:30pm AEST/ 9:30pm AEDT) at Intercontinental Stadium. Todays games will decide wether Australia will have the opportunity to play for Bronze.
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