(Tucson, AZ) Team China and Team Germany started the World Baseball Classic Qualifier today until Thursday March 6th from Kino Stadium. A beautiful sunny morning with game time temperature at 67°.
Tucson beat out Orlando Florida to host the only Qualifier Series held in the United States. The other Qualifier Series is being held in Taipei Taiwan China.
The complete the field for next year’s World Baseball Classic will be held in Tokyo Japan, San Juan Puerto Rico, Houston Texas and Miami Florida.
First Inning
China made some noise in the top of the first inning when with one out, Liang Pei stroked a single to left center field to get things going. After a wild pitch, Germany’s pitcher Markus Solbach threw a wild pitch to advance Liang to second base. One pitch later, Solbach hit Li Ning to put runners at first and second base. After a foul out, Lu Yin singled sharply to right field to drive in Liang with the game’s first run and a 1-0 lead.
Team Germany went meekly in the bottom half of the inning with bookend strikeouts and line-out to the third baseman.
Second Inning
Team China didn’t have much in the top of the second as they led off with a groundout shortstop to first, then an infield hit that handcuffed Alex Schmidt the German shortstop. A strikeout and a grounder to first ended the top of the inning.
The Germans’ got took the lead in their half of the second as Shawn Larry was hit by a pitch, Simon Baumgardt singed to right field. Donald Lutz walked to load the bases. A passed ball got the first run in and was followed by Alex Schmidt’s infield hit with the RBI for the second run. Team Germany up 2-1.
Third Inning
China began the third inning on center fielder Ling Pei’s infield hit to the shortstop took a bad hop. Ling proceeded to steal second and Li Ning drove him home on a sold base hit to center field to tie the game at 2-2.
Once again, the Germans’ went out in order with two foul outs and a fly ball to center field.
Fourth Inning
Yang Jin led off the top half of the inning with a sharp grounder to third base that ate up Eric Brenk for an infield single. Left fielder Xiang WeBin moved Yang to second with a sacrifice bunt, but then nothing further as a fly out to center field and a ground out to shortstop ended the inning.
Larry led off with a hard smash to the shortstop Yang Jin who mishandled it for an error. the next batter up, Shawn Baumgardt doubled to the left center field power ally to put Germany in business. Donald Lutz walked to load the bases. Finn Bergmann also had a base on balls to load the bases. Shortstop Schmidt first ball swinging lifted a fly ball deep enough to score Larry from third for the second run of the innnig and a 4-2 lead. The inning ended on a spectacular play when third baseman Lu Yun snagged a bullet line drive as he step on the bag to double up Baumgardt saving at least two runs.
Fifth Inning
China made a little noise when Hu TianYuan led off with a single to right field. Liang Pei followed with a fielder’s choice but lead runner Hu was out at second. Li Ning singled to left to put runners at first and second with one out. Right fielder Samuel Benjamin sacrificed both runner to second and third bases with a grounder to the right side of the infield but now two outs. The inning ended on a nice play by shortstop Schmidt going deep in the hole and threw to beat the runner at second.
Team Germany Chinwoke up with two walks, a hit batsman and an error sandwiched with a double by Larry to score two more runs scored adding to a 6-2 lead.
Sixth Inning
Germany’s Markus Solbach struck out the side with Yang, Xing and Chen going down in order.
Suo Xud also had good stuff striking out Helmig and Walther after Brenk had popped up to first baseman Lou JinJun.
Seventh Inning
China continued its futility with the first two batters striking out for their fifth consecutive whiffs from the last inning. They did manage to get two base runners with a single to left field and a hit batter. Benjamin flew out to center field to end the inning.
The sleeping giant Team Germany opened the floodgates in the bottom half of the inning with a single, two RBI double, four walks that forced in two more runs and the dagger off teh bat of Lutz with a two run bomb to right field that culminated in a six run stanza.
At that point, Team China Manager Wei Li had seen enough trailing 12-2 walked out to home plate and conceded the contest.
Wrap Up
The German’s starting pitcher Markus Solbach went six and a third innings scattering eight hits, striking out six Chinese batters and not walking anyone. Jordan Martinson cleaned up the final two batters.
Team Germany’s big bats included Simon Baumgardt went 2-2 with 3 walks for a perfect on base percentage, he also stole a base. Lucas Dunn went 2-4 with 2 RBI and was hit by a pitch. Shawn Larry went 1-3 with two RBI. Donald Lutz had the 2 run Big Fly that put the lid on this one.
Attendance was 1,549.
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