Team Israel is close to 7,000 miles away from the scene of their qualifying win in Brooklyn, N.Y., back in September. But the good vibes are continuing at the World Baseball Classic.
With their 2-1 victory in 10 innings over South Korea and their 15-7 win over Chinese Taipei, Team Israel has won five straight games under skipper Jerry Weinstein, dating back to the qualifiers in Brooklyn.
More importantly, the two victories this week, accomplished just about 18 hours apart at Gotcheok Skydome in Seoul, South Korea, have given Team Israel a quick and decided edge in being able to advance to the next round, which would match the winner and runner-up of Pool A against the winner and runner-up in Pool B.
Those games would take place in Tokyo from March 12-16.
Israel’s Pool A playmates are South Korea, Chinese Taipei along with The Netherlands. Orioles second basemen Jonathan Schoop plays for The Netherlands. They will serve as the home team in team Israel’s next game on Wednesday night at 10 p.m. in the U.S. (In Seoul, the game will take place on Thursday at noon.)
To set the stage for a possible Pool A match-up in Tokyo against Pool B winner and runner-up, the members of Pool B are Cuba, Japan, China and Australia.
While Israel’s game 1 win was a nail-biter all the way, in game 2 Israel got a marvelous outing from 27-year-old, 49th-round draft pick of the St Louis Cardinals’ Corey Baker. In 2016, Baker pitched in the high minors for the Cardinals at both Double AA Springfield and Triple AAA Memphis, going 5-11 with an ERA of 5.68.
Baker shut out Chinese Taipei over his 4.2 innings of shut-out ball. He was backed up early by a four-run first inning, and then a big two-run home run from former Oriole Ryan Lavarnway in the third inning. Nate Frieman would add a three-run home run in the top of the ninth.
One note of interest: relief pitcher Dean Kremer, who finished the game for Team Israel, was the first-ever Israeli born player to be drafted by a major league team when the Padres selected him in the 13th round of the 2013 draft. However, he did not sign with the Padres and was selected again in 2014 by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Photo by Margo Sugarman
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