# Australia at the Baseball World Cup

The Australia national baseball team has participated in nine of the International Baseball Federation World Cup tournaments. Australia has made it to the quarter-finals of a tournament three times—1998, 2007 and 2009— and its best result was in the most recent tournament held in 2009, in which Australia placed 5th.

## Baseball World Cup record

| Baseball World Cup record | Baseball World Cup record | Baseball World Cup record | Baseball World Cup record | Baseball World Cup record | Baseball World Cup record | Baseball World Cup record | Qualification record | Qualification record | Qualification record | Qualification record | Qualification record |
| Year | Round | Position | W | L | RS | RA | W | L | RS | RA |
| 1938 to 1976 | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate |
| 1978 | – | 9th | – | – | – | – | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held |
| 1980 | – | 7th | 4 | 7 | – | – | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held |
| 1982 | – | 9th | 2 | 7 | – | – | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held | No qualifiers held |
| 1984 to 1990 | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate | Did not participate |
| 1994 | First round | 9th | 3 | 4 | 54 | 47 | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier |
| 1998 | Quarterfinals | 7th | 6 | 4 | 71 | 54 | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier |
| 2001 | First round | 10th | 3 | 4 | 24 | 32 | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier |
| 2003 | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify |
| 2005 | First round | 10th | 4 | 4 | 41 | 26 | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier |
| 2007 | Quarterfinals | 6th | 7 | 3 | 61 | 29 | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier |
| 2009 | Third round | 5th | 9 | 6 | 96 | 64 | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier |
| 2011 | Third round | 5th | 7 | 5 | 56 | 57 | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier | Oceanian qualifier |
| Total | Quarterfinals | 10/39 | 45 | 44 | 403 | 309 | – | – | – | – |

## Netherlands, 2005

The 2005 tournament was hosted by the Netherlands. It consisted of a round-robin series conducted in two pools from which the top four teams in each pool qualified for the quarter-finals. Australia finished 5th in its pool, failing to qualify after finishing with a 4–4 record.
| 3 September | Australia | 4–2 | Puerto Rico | Netherlands Pim Mulier Stadium |
| 4 September | Nicaragua | 2–0 | Australia | Netherlands Fanny Blankers Koen Sportpark |
| 5 September | Australia | 4–6 | United States | Netherlands Pim Mulier Stadium |
| 7 September | Czech Republic | 0–14 (F/7) | Australia | Netherlands Fanny Blankers Koen Sportpark |
| 9 September | Japan | 4–2 | Australia | Netherlands Sportpark Ookmeer |
| 10 September | Australia | 4–11 | Taiwan | Netherlands Neptunus Family Stadium |
| 11 September | Australia | 8–0 | Spain | Netherlands Sportpark De Heihoef |
| 12 September | Colombia | 1–5 | Australia | Netherlands Pim Mulier Stadium |

## Taiwan, 2007

Australia's performance in the 2007 World Cup was their best ever. They finished 6th and outscored their opponents 61–29 while accumulating a 7–3 record over the course of the tournament, held in Taiwan. Trent Oeltjen was the tournament leader in runs scored (12), stolen bases (7) and batting average (.523), earning him a spot on the All Star team named at the end of the tournament.
Despite the game being shortened to seven innings by the mercy rule, Australia broke the World Cup record for runs scored when they beat Thailand 26–1. The game was also significant in that two position players combined to pitch the final four innings: third baseman Gavin Fingleson threw three innings to record the win, while first baseman Brett Roneberg threw the final inning. Finishing 6th for the tournament earned Australia an automatic berth in the 2009 World Cup.
| 7 November | Cuba | 3–2 (F/10) | Australia | Taiwan Tianmu Baseball Stadium |
| 8 November | Australia | 4–3 | Netherlands | Taiwan Tianmu Baseball Stadium |
| 9 November | Australia | 7–4 (F/11) | Venezuela | Taiwan Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium |
| 10 November | Thailand | 1–26 (F/7) | Australia | Taiwan Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium |
| 11 November | Australia | 2–1 | South Korea | Taiwan Tianmu Baseball Stadium |
| 13 November | Australia | 4–2 | Germany | Taiwan Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium |
| 14 November | Canada | 7–6 | Australia | Taiwan Tianmu Baseball Stadium |
| 16 November Quarter-final | Australia | 0–3 | Japan | Taiwan Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium |
| 17 November 5th–8th Classification | Mexico | 1–7 | Australia | Taiwan Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium |
| 18 November 5th–6th Classification | Australia | 2–5 | South Korea | Taiwan Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium |

## Europe, 2009

In September, Australia was one of 22 nations that sent a team to the 2009 World Cup, which was held in seven different countries across Europe. For the first round they were drawn in Pool A, held in Prague, Czech Republic, and competed against Chinese Taipei, Mexico and the hosts Czech Republic. Only a few days after selecting their 24 player squad, Australia was forced to find a replacement for Justin Huber—one of the two players selected with Major League experience—as he was called up from AAA Rochester Red Wings to MLB Minnesota Twins. James Linger was selected as his replacement, making his Australian senior team debut.

### First round

Australia started its campaign with a win in the opening game of the tournament against their first round hosts, Czech Republic. Winning 17–4, one of the highlights was Timothy Kennelly hitting a home run and then a 3-run home run in his first two at bats. Both he and his brother Matthew Kennelly made their national team debut in the game. Following a rest day, Australia faced Chinese Taipei and won 7–5. Australia's hitting was led by Timothy Kennelly another 3-run home run in the third inning to make the score 4–0 (in addition to an outfield assist from right field to save a run in the sixth inning), and James Beresford hitting a 2-run shot in the eighth inning to break the tie and score what would turn out to be the winning runs. This win, combined with Mexico's defeat of Czech Republic assured Australia's progression through to the second round, and determining that their second round play (as well as any further play beyond the second round that they were to qualify for) would be in Italy. In their final game of the first round Australia lost to Mexico 10–9. Given that both teams had already qualified not only for the second round, but would both be playing in the same pool for the round, only momentum into the next round—and their next match in a potentially deciding final game of the pool—was on the line.
Pool A
9 September 16:30 (UTC+2) at Czech Republic Prague :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Australia | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 20 | 1 |
| Czech Republic | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 5 |
| WP: Australia Drew Naylor (1–0) LP: Czech Republic Jakus Toufar (1–0) Home runs: Australia: Timothy Kennelly 2 (2), Andrew Graham (1), Stefan Welch (1) Czech Republic: Martin Schneider (1) |||||||||||||
11 September 12:30 (UTC+2) at Czech Republic Prague :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Chinese Taipei | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 1 |
| Australia | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | X | 7 | 10 | 2 |
| WP: Australia Adam Bright (1–0) LP: TPE Chien-Ming Wang (0–1) Home runs: TPE: Chung-Chun Wu (1), Kuo-Min Lin (1) Australia: Timothy Kennelly (3), James Beresford (1) |||||||||||||
12 September 12:30 (UTC+2) at Czech Republic Prague :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Mexico | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 16 | 1 |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 12 | 1 |
| WP: Mexico Alan Guerrero (1–0) LP: Australia Joshua Hill (0–1) Sv: Mexico Hector Navarro (1) Home runs: Mexico: Christian Presichi (1), Carlos Valencia (1), Jesus Cota (4) Australia: Matthew Kennelly (1), Justin Linger (1), Chris Snelling (1), Joel Naughton (1) |||||||||||||

### Second round

Finishing second in their first round pool, Australia qualified for the second round to play in Pool G. Apart from their hosts Italy, the other teams to qualify for Pool G were Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles and defending champions United States.
Despite being ranked behind five of the teams in its pool on the IBAF World Rankings at the time, Australia finished the round with a 5–2. This tied with Canada and Chinese Taipei, and with the tiebreakers used in the tournament, meant Australia was second, behind only the United States. The Australians compiled a mercy rule victory over the Netherlands Antilles, victories over world No. 3 Japan, world No. 7 Mexico, world No. 8 Canada, and hosts and world No. 15 Italy, while their only defeats were by one run each at the hands of world No. 4 United States and world No. 5 Chinese Taipei.
    Pool G
13 September 18:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Piacenza (F/7) :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Netherlands Antilles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 1 |
| Australia | 2 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 9 | 0 | X | 19 | 20 | 0 |
| WP: Australia Drew Naylor (2–0) LP: Netherlands Antilles Andley Simmons (0–1) Home runs: Netherlands Antilles: Raywendley Van Gurp (1) Australia: Luke Hughes (1), Stefan Welch (2) |||||||||||||
14 September 20:30 (UTC+2) at Italy Novara (F/10) :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
| Canada | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| WP: Australia Matthew Williams (1–0) LP: Canada Robert Swindle (0–1) Home runs: Australia: Luke Hughes (2) Canada: Rene Tosoni (2) ||||||||||||||
15 September 20:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Godo (F/10) :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| Chinese Taipei | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| WP: Taiwan Yu-Ching Lin (2–0) LP: Australia Paul Mildren (0–1) Home runs: Australia: None TPE: Ken-Wei Lin (1), Hung-Yu Lin (1) ||||||||||||||
17 September 18:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Parma :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Italy | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 |
| Australia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 1 |
| WP: Australia Dushan Ruzic (1–0) LP: Italy Christopher Cooper (0–1) Home runs: Italy: None Australia: Nicholas Kimpton (1) |||||||||||||
19 September 15:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Bologna :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 0 |
| Japan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| WP: Australia Adam Blackley (1–0) LP: Japan Takashi Saito (0–2) Home runs: Australia: Chris Snelling (2) Japan: None |||||||||||||
20 September 20:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Macerata :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Mexico | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | X | 6 | 10 | 1 |
| WP: Australia Paul Mildren (1–1) LP: Mexico Francisco Cordoba (1–1) Sv: Australia Timothy Cox (1) Home runs: Mexico: Mario Valenzuela (1), Abel Martinez (1) Australia: Brad Harman (1) |||||||||||||
18 September 18:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Piacenza :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Australia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| United States | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 1 |
| WP: United States Ehren Wasserman (1–0) LP: Australia Timothy Cox (0–1) Home runs: Australia: None United States: Justin Smoak (9), Trevor Plouffe (3) |||||||||||||

### Final round

    Group 2
22 September 20:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Grosseto :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| Cuba | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| WP: Cuba Norge Vera (3–0) LP: Australia Dushan Ruzic (1–1) Sv: Cuba Pedro Lazo (3) Home runs: Australia: None Cuba: Alfredo Despaigne (7) |||||||||||||
23 September 20:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Grosseto :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | X | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| WP: Australia Matthew Williams (2–0) LP: Netherlands Dennis Neuman (1–1) Home runs: Netherlands: None Australia: Luke Hughes 2 (4) |||||||||||||
24 September 20:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Florence :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Australia | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 2 |
| Venezuela | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | X | 9 | 13 | 3 |
| WP: Venezuela Jose Rodriguez (1–0) LP: Australia Brendan Wise (0–1) Home runs: Australia: None Venezuela: René Reyes (5) |||||||||||||
24 September 19:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Chieti :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Puerto Rico | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 |
| Australia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| WP: Puerto Rico Orlando Ramon (1–1) LP: Australia Drew Naylor (2–1) Sv: Puerto Rico Richard Rodriguez (4) Home runs: Puerto Rico: Carlos Rivera (1) Australia: Stefan Welch (3), Timothy Kennelly (4) |||||||||||||
26 September 20:00 (UTC+2) at Italy Messina :
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Australia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| WP: Australia David Welch (1–0) LP: Netherlands Arschwin Asjes (0–2) Sv: Australia Dushan Ruzic (1) Home runs: Australia: Stefan Welch (4) Netherlands: None |||||||||||||

## Panama, 2011

Australia is scheduled to participate in the 2011 tournament in Panama, to be held in October 2011. They will in the same pool for the first round of as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Germany, Italy, Nicaragua, South Korea, and Venezuela.

## Overall record

Australian World Cup Record by opponent (Since 1998) :
| Opponent | Tournaments met | W–L record | Largest victory | Largest victory | Largest defeat | Largest defeat | Current streak |
| Opponent | Tournaments met | W–L record | Score | Tournament | Score | Tournament | Current streak |
| Canada | 5 | 4–1 | 7–0 | Panama 2011 | 7–6 | Taiwan 2007 | W2 |
| Chinese Taipei | 3 | 2–2 | 6–3 | Italy 1998 | 11–4 | Netherlands 2005 | L1 |
| Colombia | 1 | 1–0 | 5–1 | Netherlands 2005 | – | – | W1 |
| Cuba | 4 | 0–4 | – | – | 14–0 (F/7) | Panama 2011 | L4 |
| Czech Republic | 2 | 2–0 | 14–0 (F/7) | Netherlands 2005 | – | – | W2 |
| Dominican Republic | 2 | 2–0 | 9–2 | Italy 1998 | – | – | W2 |
| Germany | 2 | 2–0 | 9–6 | Panama 2011 | – | – | W2 |
| Italy | 3 | 1–2 | 5–4 | Italy 2009 | 7–0 | Panama 2011 | L1 |
| Japan | 4 | 1–4 | 5–0 | Italy 2009 | 8–0 | Taiwan 2001 | W1 |
| Mexico | 2 | 2–1 | 7–1 | Taiwan 2007 | 10–9 | Czech Republic 2009 | W1 |
| Netherlands | 5 | 3–3 | 4–1 | Italy 2009 | 6–0 | Taiwan 2001 | L1 |
| Netherlands Antilles | 1 | 1–0 | 19–6 (F/7) | Italy 2009 | – | – | W1 |
| Nicaragua | 3 | 2–1 | 9–2 | Italy 1998 | 2–0 | Netherlands 2005 | W1 |
| Panama | 2 | 1–1 | 5–4 (F/8) | Panama 2011 | 8–2 | Taiwan 2001 | L1 |
| Philippines | 1 | 1–0 | 13–0 (F/7) | Taiwan 2001 | – | – | W1 |
| Puerto Rico | 2 | 1–1 | 4–2 | Netherlands 2005 | 4–2 | Italy 2009 | L1 |
| Russia | 2 | 2–0 | 6–2 | Italy 1998 | – | – | W2 |
| South Korea | 3 | 3–2 | 7–2 | Italy 1998 | 8–0 | Panama 2011 | W1 |
| Spain | 1 | 1–0 | 8–0 | Netherlands 2005 | – | – | W1 |
| Thailand | 1 | 1–0 | 26–1 (F/7) | Taiwan 2007 | – | – | W1 |
| United States | 4 | 0–4 | – | – | 8–5 | Italy 1998 | L4 |
| Venezuela | 3 | 2–1 | 15–0 (F/5) | Panama 2011 | 9–4 | Italy 2009 | W1 |
| Overall | 6 | 35–27 | Against THA | Against THA | Against CUB | Against CUB | W2 |
| Overall | 6 | 35–27 | 26–1 (F/7) | Taiwan 2007 | 14–0 (F/7) | Panama 2011 | W2 |