Australia is now in the super round of the 2019 WBSC Premier12 tournament. On Friday, Australia defeated Canada 3-1 for their first win.
Australia ended up in a three-way tie in Group C with Canada and Cuba. All three teams had one and two losses. Due to the fact all three nations beat each other, a complicated tie-breaking formula was used to determine the other team that would join South Korea in advancing from the group.
The tie breaking formula that was used was called Total Quality Balance. Australia and Canada both had a positive quality balance as Canada had beaten Cuba by three runs and only lost to Australia by two runs. Australia meanwhile had beaten Canada by two runs and only lost to Cuba by one run. Cuba had a negative quality balance as they had beaten Australia by only one run and lost to Canada by three runs.
To calculate the total quality balance, according to extrainningsbaseball.wordpress.com, “the sum of runs scored divided by the number of innings played on offense, minus the number of runs allowed, divided by the number of innings played on defense. For purposes of determining TQB, only the scores from the games between the tied teams are to be used in the calculation.”
Australia ended up with a total quality balance of .067, compared to Canada’s total quality balance of .046. Cuba’s total quality balance was -.105.
It also helped Australia that they were able to score two of their three runs against Canada in the bottom of the eighth inning and did not need the ninth inning to squeak out a win. In the eighth inning, Logan Wade hit a key two out triple which scored Timothy Kennelly and Robert Glendinning and break the 1-1 deadlock. Now Australia will have their hands full as they have to face baseball superpowers the United States, Mexico, Japan and Chinese Taipei in the next round.
