Israel wins thriller in first-ever World Baseball Classic appearance

Underdog team squeaks past hometown South Korean squad 2-1 in 10 innings, will face Taiwan Tuesday

By AFP and ToI Staff 6 March 2017, 4:32 pm

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Israel's Zach Borenstein is forced out at home as South Korea's catcher Yang Eui-ji tries to throw to first during the eighth inning of the first round game of the World Baseball Classic at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 6, 2017. (AP /Lee Jin-man)

Israel’s national baseball team stunned co-hosts South Korea 2-1 in an extra-innings nailbiter as the World Baseball Classic got underway in thrilling fashion on Monday, marking a thrilling start for the Cinderella squad making its first-ever appearance in the international tourney.

Scott Burcham’s infield single at the top of the 10th broke South Korean hearts and delivered a huge upset at the start of the 16-team tournament, spread across four countries.

Qualifiers Israel, stacked with US-born professional players, held their nerve at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome after the teams were all square at one after nine innings.

Pitcher Chang Won-Jun had walked Tyler Krieger in the second to put Israel ahead, before Seo Geon-Chang drove to left field to take South Korea level in the fifth.

As tensions mounted in the 10th, Burcham singled on a ground ball to second baseman Seo, allowing Israel to go 2-1 in front and leave South Korea staring at defeat.

Josh Zeid, Israel’s sixth pitcher, then threw his third shut-out inning to complete an embarrassing loss for the 2009 finalists in front of a home crowd of more than 15,000.

The surprise win for Israel, 38 spots below third-placed South Korea in the world rankings, boosts their chances of surviving a group which also includes Taiwan and the Netherlands.

The team will face Taiwan on Tuesday for the next game of the round robin in Seoul.

Two of four teams advance from first-round pools in Seoul, Tokyo, Miami and Guadalajara, Mexico, into second-round play at Tokyo and San Diego that will determine the four semifinalists who play March 20-21 in Los Angeles.

'Mensch on a Bench' with Team Israel player Cody Decker, March 5, 2017. (Screenshot/MLB.com) — ‘Mensch on a Bench’ with Team Israel player Cody Decker, March 5, 2017. (Screenshot/MLB.com)

Watching alongside the team in the dugout was the Mensch on a Bench, a human sized doll with a rabbi’s hat and Hannukah candle that has become the team’s mascot.

Nearly all the members on Team Israel are American Jews. By WBC rules, a player may compete for a country if he is eligible for citizenship under its laws. Israel extends the right of automatic citizenship to Jews, their non-Jewish children, grandchildren and the non-Jewish spouses of their children and grandchildren.

Last month, a 10-player delegation came to Israel on a six-day visit meant to connect the team with the country they are representing in the tournament.