The Cinderella team continues their run through the World Baseball Classic as Israel defeated the Dutch 4-2 on Wednesday to win their pool outright and advance as the top seed from Pool A with a 3-0 record. The Netherlands, who had an automatic bid to Round 2 prior to their loss, will also be traveling to Tokyo to start the next round.
Team Israel jumped out to an early lead after putting up three runs in the bottom of the 1st inning. With two men on, Nate Freiman hit a line drive double to left field scoring Ty Kelly who got on with a one-out walk. Ike Davis then moved over to third and scored when Zach Borenstein grounded out moving Frieman to third. Then Ryan Lavarnway singled to left scoring Frieman with the third run of the inning.
In the third, the Dutch got on back when Randolph Oduber led off with a walk and then scored on a one-out double off the bat of Jurickson Profar.
Israel added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth when Borenstein came up with the bases loaded and no outs and hit into a double play, scoring Kelly to make the score 4-1. The Netherlands would only get one run closer and fall 4-2 to the surprising Israel squad.
Australia v. Cuba
Teams Cuba and Australia will battle it out on Thursday night for the right to advance to Round 2. Japan is already 2-0 and have an automatic bid no matter what they do in their last game against China, but both the Cuban and Aussies are tied at 1-1 and the winner will move on.
Cuba dropped their first game 11-6 to Japan but then rebounded and defeated China 6-0. As for Australia they lost to Japan 4-1 and then also rebounded and beat China 11-0.
The showdown is set and begins on Thursday at 10:00 pm EST.
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