In the top of the 1st, Shorto doubled and Shepherd singled to bring him home. Special mention must be made here of Shepherd as in the pre-game warmup, a ball flew off his glove and broke his nose. Our physio straightened it back and while the national anthems were being played immediately prior to the game starting, he was still flat on his back on the physio table in a lot of pain. He showed enormous courage to take the field and indeed went on to play an absolutely outstanding game.
Brazil threatened in the bottom of the first with loaded bases and one out but starting pitcher, Brazier, did a great job to get himself out of trouble and so we led the game 1 – 0.
Then in the 2nd, we exploded offensively with Maxfield, Brazier, Shorto and Hayes all recording hits and when combined with the Mexicans throwing five walks, we crossed the plate eight times to blow the lead out to 9 – 0. Brazil hit back straight away however, and this was to be the case throughout the entire game, although we didn’t know it at the time. They scored four runs themselves on the back of three hits and three walks and it was a 9 – 4 scoreline.
In the top of the 3rd, we scored one run when Lyon singled and was driven in by Morris, and we had extended our lead to 10 – 4.
The top of the 4th saw us continuing to keep the scoreboard ticking over when we piled on another four runs on hits by Hayes and Morris, and a bunch of walks and it was out to what seemed a comfortable 14 – 4 lead. But again Brazil rallied with three consecutive hits to score twice and make it 14 – 6.
We were kept scoreless for the next three innings while Brazil scored three in the 5th followed by another two on the 6th and our lead was now only 14 – 11. It fair dinkum seemed to be that for a period of about four innings, everything Brazil hit seemed to find a gap, either through the infield or falling in front of our outfielders.
So going into the 8th it was a 14 – 11 ball game. Shorto led off with a double down the left field line, Shepherd singled (again), Hoschke hit a real two strike clutch hit single and further hits to Hayes and Baker saw us score three runs and take us out to another seemingly comfortable lead at 17 – 11. But to the Brazilians’ great credit, they rallied yet again scoring three runs of their own from two out to narrow the score back to 17 – 14 going into the 9th.
Into the last innings, again Shorto led off with a hit and Shepherd walked but then our next two hitters struck out and Shiels with two strikes on him, clutch hit up through the middle to score two and take our lead out to 19 – 14 going into the bottom of the last. Yet again, Brazil would not lie down and they scored to make it 19 – 15 and had loaded bases, when Thorpe struck out the final hitter.
So after a marathon 3 hours and 57 minutes we had finally won the game 19 – 15. Several times throughout the game, we seemingly had unbeatable leads and looked in good shape to win, only to see the Brazilians fight back. Indeed, they out hit us 21 to 18 in what was basically a slugfest of a day at the ball park. May have been exciting to watch but I’m sure our entire coaching staff aged just a little today !!
|
Date:
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22 August, 2011
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Tournament:
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AA World Championships
|
|
Venue:
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Panamericano Stadium,
Lagos de Moreno, Mexico
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AUSTRALIA
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vs BRAZIL
|
|
|
Inn / Team
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
R
|
H
|
E
|
|
V
|
Australia
|
1
|
8
|
1
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
2
|
|
|
19
|
18
|
0
|
|
H
|
Brazil
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
1
|
|
|
15
|
21
|
2
|
|
Bat
|
Australia
|
Pos
|
AB
|
Hits
|
RBIs
|
Walks
|
Stolen
Bases
|
Runs
Scored
|
|
1
|
C. Lyon
|
2B
|
7
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
|
2
|
B. Shorto
|
CF
|
7
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
|
3
|
Z. Shepherd
|
SS
|
7
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
3
|
|
4
|
M. Morris
|
1B
|
7
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
|
5
|
T. Maxfield
K. Hoschke
|
RF
|
4
3
|
1
1
|
2
2
|
1
0
|
0
0
|
1
0
|
|
6
|
A. Hayes
|
LF
|
7
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
|
7
|
T. Shiels
|
C
|
7
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
|
8
|
H. Baker
|
3B
|
7
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
0
|
2
|
|
9
|
L. Brazier
B. Collins
R. Dale
|
P
|
4
1
1
|
1
0
0
|
2
0
0
|
2
1
0
|
0
0
0
|
2
0
0
|
Pitchers
|
Australia
|
Innings Pitched
|
Ks
|
Hits
|
Walks
|
Runs
|
Earned Runs
|
|
L. Brazier
|
4.67
|
5
|
11
|
4
|
9
|
9
|
|
B. Collins
|
2.33
|
2
|
5
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
|
J. Lott
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
|
L. Thorpe
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
