Australia lost its two game International Baseball Showdown series to the Hanwha Eagles on the weekend at Altona Meadows’ Melbourne Ballpark.
The visiting South Korean baseball giant won the first game on Saturday night 2-1, in front of a packed home crowd for Australia’s first home game in four years.
All the runs were scored in the first three innings.
The Korean Baseball Organisation’s leading home run scorer Si Hwan Roh lived up to his hype as a Korean star, batting in both of Hanwha’s runs for the night. He scored the first run in the first innings, and the second in the third.
The Eagles grabbed both their runs off Australian starting pitcher Tim Atherton.
Australia scored its only run in the second innings on a fielder’s choice RBI (runs batted in) from Robbie Perkins.
Australia’s pitchers were impressive with Canberra’s Steve Kent throwing three innings for just one hit ball with four strikeouts. Melbourne’s Jon Kennedy also had a shutout inning while Luke Wilkins pitched two scoreless innings to close the game.
The second game was on Sunday afternoon with the Eagles winning in a thrilling 5-3 game.
It came down to the last pitch of the game with the home side down 5-3 at the top of the last innings and all bases loaded.
The responsibility was left on local legend Darryl George to get the winning hit for his side but was unfortunately unable to do so.
However, the Aces’ George was able to claim the first two RBI’s of the match in the bottom of the third innings.
Australia will play next as a senior national team in November for the Premier12, a World Championship equivalent.
