South Korea makes surprising exit at World Baseball Classic
Country had finished 2nd in last WBC
Jungho Kang hit a two-run homer with two out in the bottom of the 8th inning to give South Korea a 3-2 victory over Taiwan in a World Baseball classic Group B game on Tuesday, but the South Koreans missed out on a spot in the next round because they lost a tiebreaker against the Netherlands.
Taiwan, Korea and the Netherlands all finished the group with 2-1 records. But Taiwan and the Netherlands advanced on a run differential tiebreaker. Australia finished at the bottom of the group with an 0-3 record.
Kang's home run came off former Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Hung-Chin Kuo, who gave up all three runs in the 8th at the game in Taichung, Taiwan.
Dai-Kang Yang had two singles for Taiwan and drove in a run.
Netherlands 4, Australia 1
Jonathan Schoop's two-run homer helped give the Netherlands a spot in the next round with a 4-1 victory over Australia.
The Dutch will play in the second round in Tokyo. Schoop's homer capped a three-run second inning.
Starting pitcher Robbie Cordemans allowed two hits in five innings.
Brad Harman had a ninth-inning drive to left for Australia with two on that was snagged on the warning track by Randolph Oduber, preserving the Dutch win.
Group A
China rallies on Brazil
Ray Chang drove in two runs Tuesday and China rallied with five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat Brazil 5-2 in Group A of the World Baseball Classic at Fukuoka, Japan.
Brazil led 2-0 in the eighth, but China scored its first run on a bases-loaded walk before Chang hit a soft fly ball to left field that scored two and gave the Chinese a 3-2 lead.
"It was a very gratifying win because our kids are not used to this," China manager John McLaren said. "Both teams played well.
"Both teams could have won, but we were fortunate to get the big inning at the end there."
China added two more runs on bases-loaded walks before Lu Jiangang recorded the final out.
'Pitching completely fell apart' With the win, China improved to 1-2 and earned a spot in the next Classic, while Brazil (0-3) will be forced to qualify for the next tournament.
"Our pitching completely fell apart," Brazil manager Barry Larkin said. "And it wasn't just the pitching.
"We had many chances offensively, but we weren't able to capitalize so we had a two-run lead that should have been bigger."
Lu picked up the win after pitching 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief. Murilo Gouvea gave up three earned runs in the eighth to take the loss.
Japan plays Cuba on Wednesday in the final game of Group A. Both teams have already advanced to the March 8-12 second round at Tokyo Dome.