(3) Indonesia 9 (7) Phillipines 1

VWBC
TOKYO - Earlier today Indonesia sent off the Phillipines in a businesslike pounding of the 7 seed. The win was never in question as Indonesia scored 3 runs in the first inning, which would be more than they needed, and never trailed, only allowing 1 Phillipines run on a solo homer. Indonesia secured their place in the Asian final, a spot which has been relatively easy to obtain for them. Their road to the VWBC quarterfinals (otherwise known as the regional finals) was made effortless by the Phillipines, who saved them the bother of facing formidable 2 seed Sweden by upending Sweden last round. The Phillipines again made their road comfortable today by providing almost no resistance in the round 3 matchup. Indonesia will finally be tested next round when they face the Mongolian Machine in the Asian final. With half of the quarterfinal bracket filled in, VWBC play now moves to the highly anticipated clashes in the African semifinals, where all four top seeds still remain and will battle it out for the two spots in the African finals.

(1) Mongolia 4 (12) Qatar 0

VWBC
TOKYO - The day after underdog Liechtenstein's shocking win over Scotland, the VWBC's other big underdog story came to an end as Mongolia dispatched Qatar 4-0. Unlike Liechtenstein, Qatar just couldn't summon that magical ability that had stunningly knocked Japan out of the tourney in round 1, depriving them of their chance to come and play here in Tokyo in round 3. Nor could they summon the determination that enabled them to end Thailand's storybook run last round. Nevertheless, Qatar put up a fight to be proud of for 5 innings before succumbing to Mongolian might in the 6th. In the 1st, 3rd, and 4th innnings Qatar narrowly missed scoring opportunities. Mongolia's offense was quiet for the first 5 innings, but there was a sense that it was lurking just out of sight, like a powerful whirlwind waiting for an opening to strike. Its not often that baseball teams' offenses are subjected to similes, but that was really how it felt. And in the 6th, strike it did with a string of hits that broke the game open. It was only thanks to brilliant Qatar defense that the Mongolians did not score more than 4 runs, although those turned out to be more than enough, as Qatar's offense was stymied for the rest of the game. Next up Mongolia will face either the Phillipines or Indonesia in the Asian final. Qatar will doubtless be proud of their fine accomplishment in any event, as their win over Japan was one of the highlights of all time for Qatar baseball. In the end, however, they just couldn't stand up to the Mongolian onslaught, despite their fighting spirit and tough determination.

(2) Scotland 0 (14) Liechtenstien 6

VWBC
SALZBURG - In an inspiring upset, huge underdog Liechtenstein shocked the baseball world today as they upended behemoth Scotland to earn a place for themselves in the European finals, as well as a permanent place in baseball lore. Today's performance will leave its memories imprinted on the minds of all who watched for years to come with moments such as starter Franz Hatz's complete game one-hitter, which came despite being nailed by balls hit off his opponent's bats twice. His effort was so heroic that on one of those balls, he managed to make the play to first before commencing to writhe in pain. The other ball that collided with him was the only hit that Scotland had all game. Another ecstatic moment for Liechtenstein was first baseman Joseph von Straten's 4th inning grand slam, which broke open a game that had until that moment been a defensive stalemate. Liechtenstein added another two runs in the 7th to seal the deal. For their part, Scotland cannot be said to really have had a bad game, although their offense was completely shut down, most attribute that to Hatz's masterful pitching which would have dumbfounded any team. The high-caliber Scottish squad just couldn't answer Liechtenstein's sudden dominance. On this day, Liechtenstein could have undoubtedly defeated any team in the world. Of course, the Scots will doubtless still be disappointed, having what looked to be a very promising run cut short by a 14 seed, albeit one that is playing like a 1 seed. Liechtenstein has never been much of a power in the baseball world before, with this win easily making their VWBC performance so far Liechtenstein baseball's greatest achievement ever. Aside from their current run, Liechtenstein's meager credential's were headlined by their reaching the quarterfinals of the 1985 European Baseball Coalition Championships. Apart from the fact that reaching the quarterfinals doesn't seem to be too big of an achievement anyway, this tournament was one of the many held for the fractured baseball federations before the VWBC, and it did not include many of the European powers like Italy, Germany, or any British squads. Now, this small but wealthy nation is rejoicing, with the streets of Vaduz filled with jubilant celebraters even now, three hours after the conclusion of the game, with no sign of the rejoicing letting up. Once they are done basking in the current glory, Liechtenstein will turn their attention to the European final against England, easily the biggest match in the history of Liechtenstein baseball.

(1) Germany 2 (4) England 6

VWBC
SALZBURG - As round 3 got underway earlier today in the VWBC, things started off with a bang as Germany became the first top seed to be ousted from the tourney. Germany's hopes for a 4th round berth seemed to be very much alive through the first 5 innings, as they kept an assertive 2-0 lead and allowed a mere 2 hits. In the 6th, however, England's bats loosened up a bit and they evened it to make it 2-2. A couple innings later in the 8th, a major English offensive that included a homer by their dominating third baseman Richard Yoreson (affectionately nicknamed "Richard the Lionheart" in his home country) sealed the deal for a 6-2 win. With this win England advances to the European finals, and merely making it their constitutes the most important acheivement for English baseball in 15 years, since England won the Western European baseball championships in 1991. England advances to play the winner of Liechtenstein vs. Scotland. Either outcome of that game, scheduled for tomorrow, should produce a matchup for the ages in the European finals, as England will either face Liechtenstein, a team that has already made history with their underdog run, or Scotland, England's long-standing British rivals. For Germany, they will be plagued by dissapointment in the coming year, but however much they would have liked to do better, they still have earned at least the partial respect of their country, with Germans all over declaring that they are "proud of our team, and I just hope they'll turn their disappointment into hard work for the next tourneys," in the words of one fan.

Round 3 matchups

VWBC
With all the teams nice and rested after a twelve day break, everyone is roaring to go for round 3, which will begin tomorrow. As there are only 8 games to be played, only one will be played per day. All games in rounds 3 and 4 (regional semifinals and finals) will be played in the "host" country for that region (one of the requirements for being a regional "host" was that the country was a 6 seed or lower)
Here are the matchups:
Europe Region:
Games to be played at Salzburg Stadium in Austria:
(1) Germany vs. (4) England July 17
(2) Scotland vs. (14) Liechtenstein July 18
Asia/Middle East Region:
Games to be played at Tokyo Arena in Japan:
(1) Mongolia vs. (12) Qatar July 19
(3) Indonesia vs. (7) Phillipines July 20
Africa Region:
Games to be played at Giza Stadium in Egypt:
(1) Chad vs. (4) Democratic Republic of the Congo July 21
(2) Sierra Leone vs. (3) Egypt July 22
Americas/Islands Region:
Games to be played at Castries Field in St. Lucia:
(1) Australia vs. (5) USA July 23
(3) St. Lucia vs. (7) Chile July 24

Round 2 over

VWBC
Now in its second month of existence, the 2nd round of the VWBC has now concluded. This round has narrowed the field to 16, and has weeded out the faint-hearted and produced what is now the cream of the crop, 16 teams that have made it past the first two rounds. After two rounds, we are left with 11 top four seeds out of the original 16. By this number, you can tell that so far there have been few major upsets so far in the VWBC. The only true cinderella stories now are Liechtenstein and Qatar, the only two teams left that were not in the bottom 7 seeds. Besides those two, these teams have yet to be truly tested, with the low seeds going up against relatively weak teams so far. But that is all about to change. In round 3, (also known as the regional semifinals) every matchup will contain at least one, usually two, top 4 seeds. There will be no free passes to round 4, the regional finals. To get past the coming round, a team will truly have to be one of the best in the world.

July 4 Results

VWBC
The results for the final games in round 2, played on July 4, are now in. These games were played on schedule, we apologize for the fact that the news was not announced to the world for so long, an inconvenience that was due to the fact that a mysterious problem simultaneously developed in all of our communications machines. We finally fixed it not half an hour ago after calling in an international corps of specialists, most of them were communications and mechanics specialists, however curiously enough some were specialists in bridges, water, and there was even one who specialized in the treating of nosebleeds on snails. I have no idea why said miscellaneous specialists were brought in, I suspect it was because their resumes looked impressive to our gullible staff. Anyway, enough speculation and long-winded explanations, to make a long story short (although it is slightly long already) they fixed the machines. The diagnosed the problem, and without getting too technical, I can tell you that it was apparently caused by a combination of the angle that Saturn was making to Mars, a leak in the roof of a home in western Mongolia, and a still-unamed green substance that was in the machines (I suspect that the last one was the main reason, but hey, I'm no expert.)
Luckily, there was scheduled to be a 12 day break between rounds 2 and 3 in the first place, so no harm done.
ANYWAY, here are the results:
(2) Sierra Leone 4 (7) Namibia 2
(5) USA 7 (13) New Zealand 3
Brief summary:
These two games both ended with solid victories for favorites. In the earlier game, Sierra Leone showed their mettle once again with another solid victory. Although their margin of victory was quite a bit less than their 8-0 trouncing of Ghana last round, the outcome of the game was never in doubt, with fierce offense and for the most part impregnable defense from Sierra Leone sealing the victory. With Sierra Leone's victory, the 2 seeds split their matches this round, with two of them exiting the tournament, and two moving on. Sierra Leone moves on to face 3 seeded Egypt in a matcup that will surely be a clash of the titans, the first time in the tournament so far that two of the stacked African top 4 will face each other.
The second match of the day saw the USA, on a day of national celebration already, give the fans in baseball's native country another reason to celebrate. Coming into this tournament, USA baseball fans were pessimistic about their country's "substandard" team, which they did not believe worthy of the country that invented baseball. However two matches and two convincing victories later, the USA team has convinced many of their fans that they have the heart and determination to do well, even though they may not have the biggest names. Of course, some American critics still maintain their position in light of the fact that so far the US has hardly proved themselves, only so far defeating 12 and 13 seeds. However, many commentators maintain that New Zealand should have been seeded lower, a position that many thought the Kiwis backed up with their 1st round win. In any event, one side will soon be silenced, as the US now moves on to a very tough 3rd round match with top seed Australia.

(2) Sweden 3 (7) Phillipines 6

VWBC
UlaanBaatar - In front of a roaring crowd of passionate Phillipines fans, which included, though you couldn't tell it by using your ears, a sizable portion of Sweden supporters, the 2 seeded Swedish team became the second 2 seed to lose in the VWBC. This loss came after the Swedes barely survived the first round, beating Norway after an extended clash that lasted 16 innings, during which Sweden expended most of their top pitchers. Although the 9 day gap between games allowed the Swedes what should have been plenty of time to rest all their pitchers, many commentators suspect that the usage of so many pitchers in their first round was a main reason for their early exit. One reason that is not in question, though, is that the 7 seeded Phillipines team is proving that they are a force to be reckoned with. Not once in this game did they trail, and their offense was dominating, while their defense held the Swedes to only 3 runs. This emerging power faces 3 seed Indonesia in the next round, another match that is sure to test them.

(2) Scotland 5 (10) Greece 4 (13 innings)

VWBC
BERLIN - After their triumphant trouncing of rival France, a confident and powerful Scotland were stiffly tested in a long battle against a surprisingly resistant Greek squad. The early innings of the match quickly became a defensive battle, with both pitchers settling in to a 0-0 deadlock, one that persisted until the sixth inning, where both sides got on the board, with the Scottish offense producing 3 runs, and the Greek producing 2. Later in the 8th a solo home run by Oliver Zavias of Greece propelled them to a 3-3 tie, which was still the score at the conclusion of 9 innings. In extra innings, an additional three scoreless innings passed as both sides replaced their starters with their number 2 starter, knowing that without a win here, it would not matter how well-rested their rotation was as they would be going home. The normally explosive Scottish offense, the same one that had produced 16 runs against France, was held in check by the Greek pitching, helped by some extraodinary defensive plays by the Greeks. In the 13th inning Greece was a able to add a run after their leadoff hitter was walked. He advanced to 2nd on a sacrifice bunt, and to third on an error. A double by the Greek 3rd baseman knocked him in, but trying to stretch that double into a triple, he was thrown out. He squandered the Greek chance at a few more runs, going from a possible man on 2nd with one out situation to a two outs no one on situation. A pop out disposed of the last Greek out for that inning, and now the Scots had 3 outs to score at least one run, or they would be out of the tourney. The portion of the crowd that were Scottish supporters were noticably tense as the bottom of the 13th commenced, but their fears were soon dismissed as Scottish centerfielder Roger Campbell's double was followed by a walk-off home run from Scottish star first baseman John Harfield. The Scots survived a close one, but win they did, and their relieved team will move on to face giant slayers Liechtenstein, the cinderella story of the tournament so far, in what will surely be an exciting round 3 match.

Happy 4th!!

Hey people happy fourth of July!!
This day is a day for us to be proud of our nation!! So go forth into the world! Sing patriotic songs! Wear red white and blue! Go be proud to be an american!! and most importantly... eat pie and watch fireworks!! With delicious food and pretty explosions you can't go wrong!

So in case any of you have forgotten (gasp! you bad bad people!) here is why we do said things on this day: On July 4th, 1776 (230 years ago) the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously (with one abstention, New York) to approve a document called the Declaration of Independence, a fierce proclamation written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, with help from Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. The Declaration called for an immediate severance of all ties with the tyrannical and oppresive rule of King George III, ruler of the British Empire. The words that they scribed on that piece of parchment have now become etched in every American's mind: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness". This simple and powerful declaration, from an assortment of representatives from the 13 colonies who held widely different views, and hailed from widely different cultures, was an extraodinary product of willpower. It represented a triumph for the radicals, the patriots, in Congress, led largely by the men from Massachusetts, Sam and John Adams. It took them over a year, and endless debate, discussion, and politicking before they finally approved a claim of independence from Britain. They had to overcome the obstructions of the conservatives, representatives led mostly by John Dickinson, who clung tightly to the colonies' ties to Britain, our "mother country".
But when they finally got it done, this document announced the resolve of a whole nation to strive for freedom from an unfair and oppresive rule. With the approval of the Declaration, we officially declared our intention to break free from Britain, to beome a seperate state entirely. We had finally decided that we were free. Once the Declaration was signed (which mostly didn't happen until well after the 4th, only John Hancock, the president of the Congress signed it on the day it was approved), those brave patriots had shown that they were willing to not only talk about being free, but to stand up for themselves. On that day, a nation of farmers, shopkeepers, and generally what the British were calliing "rabble" declared that they wanted a better place in the world. To the rest of the world, the Declaration meant that foreign powers besides Britain could begin to negotiate with us, as our rebellion was no longer an internal affair of the British Empire.
In the following years, an army of everyday men, with no training, barely any clothing, let alone uniforms, and even less supplies, went musket-to-musket with the British redcoats, the most powerful fighting force in the world. Our ancestors were outmanned, outsupplied, and outrained, but by their courage, determination, and passion for liberty, they defeated all odds and beat the British. In doing so, they created the greatest nation on earth from pure blood, sweat, and willpower. They made a nation that, for the first time in history, accorded a person their place in society based on their willingness to succeed, not on who their father was. They ensured that we could have a chance, no matter who we are, they ensured that the requirement to govern our country was not wealth or high birth, but the will of the people. They ensured, in short, that we would be free.
So as I finally finish this post, in the last few minutes of this glorious day, I must remind you all that we are only here today, under our own rule, because of the grit and determination of those brave men 230 years ago. Think back on what they did, and how truly amazing it is.
By the way, if you are interested in learning more on the American Revolution a very good book to describe the motives and feelings that led to the revolution is Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara, which I recently read, it is a very good thing to read this time of year. It is how I got most of the information in this (very informative, if I do say so myself) post. Also pretty good is its sequel, the Glorious Cause, which describes the actual war, which I am currently reading.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! USA! USA!

Results: June 29-July 2

VWBC
Here are the results for the past three days of competition in the VWBC. We would like to apologize for the erraticness of the manner in which we present results, the fact that sometimes in-depth summaries are posted while other games merely get a score posted. We would like to assure followers that it is due to no prejudice toward certain nations, merely the fact that some times we have more time than others. When a game is particularly interesting, we try to post a summary even if it is a few days late. Without further ado, the results are:
June 29:
(4) England 5 (5) Italy 3
(12) Qatar 3 (13) Thailand 2 (12 innings)
June 30:
(4) Democratic Republic of the Congo 5 (5) Madagascar 1
(3) St. Lucia 2 (6) Mexico 1 (14 innings)
July 1:
(11) Ireland 3 (14) Liechtenstein 6
(3) Indonesia 4 (11) Nepal 3
July 2:
(2) Jamaica 7 (7) Chile 10
(3) Egypt 5 (11) Libya 4
Overall Summary:
June 29:
These days saw both upsets and favorites proceeding, and they began with the latter, as things continued to go as expected in the Africa region, with the DRC, a member of the talented top four in the otherwise weak region triumphing in undramatic, businesslike fashion over mismatched opponents Madagascar. The second match of the day was much more dramatic, with St. Lucia and Mexico evenly locked for 14 innings, until St. Lucia was finally able to snatch one run by playing small-ball in the 15th.
June 30:
Next up were seemingly evenly-matched powers England and Italy. Their clash was indeed close, and resulted in England winning 5-3, adding two runs in the 8th after 7 innings of 3-3 deadlock. The other match on June 30 provided even more drama, with UlaanBaatar hosting a pair of amazing cinderella stories, 12 seed Qatar pitted against 13 seed Thailand, that remarkable nation which had defeated powerhouse Switzerland and ignited a passion throughout their land for a game that was virtually unheard of before. Qatar had also secured their second round berth in an amazing upset, knocking off the heavily favored Japanese. In their clash though, a back and forth battle led to a 2-2 score at the end of 9 innings, sending this drama into extra innnings. In the 12th inning, however, Thailand fell victim to their fatal flaw, lack of pitching depth. In the bottom of the 12th Qatar was able to put together a rally enough to give them the run they needed to win. Thailand leaves after a remarkable run though, one which will not soon be forgotten.
July 1:
As the VWBC moved into July, it got the month kicked off with a victory for underdog Liechtenstein, a 14 seed compelled to do amazing things, having defeated the seemingly impregnable Austrians, they did it again against a slightly less talented opponent, defeating Ireland rather handily, 6-3. The second match of the day saw another cinderella story come to an end as underdogs Nepal lost to heavily favored Indonesia, 4-3. That minimal margin of loss will mean that the Nepalese definitely have nothing to hang their heads about as they leave the tournament, having already delighted their fans with a win in their home stadium against a good opponent, India, in round 1.
July 2:
Today saw yet another upset, with the Jamaica becoming the first 2 seed to exit the tournament, losing to Chile 10-3. Also, favorite Egypt moved on with a 5-4 victory over Libya.