Pool A of the first round of the

2017 World Baseball Classic The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts wer ...

was held at Gocheok Sky Dome,

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

from March 6 to 9, 2017, between

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and the Netherlands (the top two teams in the pool, who advanced to the next round in Japan) and South Korea and Taiwan. Pool A was a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

. Each team played the other three teams once, with the top two teams advancing to Pool E. Prior to the start of the tournament,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

considered Team Israel, ranked 41st in the world, to be the biggest underdog in the tournament, referring to them as the "

Jamaican bobsled team The Jamaica national bobsleigh team represents Jamaica in international bobsleighing competitions. The men's team debut in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games four-man bobsleigh in Calgary, Alberta Calgary () is a major city in the Provinces ...

of the WBC". Team Israel (3−0) and Team Netherlands (2−1) qualified for the next round, in Japan. Israel became the first baseball team to go undefeated in the first round of the WBC’s main draw after entering the main draw by winning in a qualifying round..
''The New York Times''. Israel's catcher,

Ryan Lavarnway Ryan Cole Lavarnway (; born August 7, 1987) is an American-Israeli former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, ...

, was named Pool A MVP, after going 5-for-9 (.556/.692/.889), with four walks, a home run, and three RBIs."Israel beats Netherlands to win WBC '17 Pool A,"
mlb.com

Standings

Pool A

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

Results

*All times are

Korea Standard Time South Korea has one time zone, Korea Standard Time (UTC+09:00, UTC+9), which is abbreviated KST. South Korea currently does not observe daylight saving time. From May 8 to October 9 in 1988, daylight saving time was tested to better accommodat ...

( UTC+09:00).

Israel 2, South Korea 1

In their first game Israel defeated the Pool A favorite South Korea, ranked # 3 in the world, in 10 innings by a score of 2−1."Israel beats Taiwan, 15-7, at World Baseball Classic" – ''The Denver Post''
/ref> Israel's winning pitcher

Josh Zeid Joshua Alexander Zeid ( ; ; born March 24, 1987) is an American-Israeli former professional baseball pitcher and current coach. He plays for Israel national baseball team, Team Israel. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Ast ...

said the win was the pinnacle of his career: "This has to be it. This has to be the top, top win as a team, I think in my career. I’ve been lucky enough to be part of a couple of championships in the lower levels in the minor leagues and in high school, but nothing compares to this stage. Israel's third baseman Ty Kelly tweeted: "Definitely the most stressful game I’ve ever been a part of. But it was worth it." Israel's catcher

noted after the win: "two generations ago, the way that this team was put together, would have meant that we were being killed... It means a lot more than that we're here."

Israel 15, Chinese Taipei 7

Against Chinese Taipei, ranked # 4 in the world, Israel won again, this time by the score of 15−7. Israel's 15 runs were the most Taiwan had ever given up in a game in World Baseball Classic play. Taiwan manager Kuo Tai-yuan said of Israel: "That's a very scary team."

Netherlands 5, South Korea 0

The Netherlands shut out South Korea, 5−0, handing the host team its second loss and raising the prospect of South Korea's second early exit since

2013 World Baseball Classic The 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, held from March 2 to 19, 2013. This was the third iteration of the WBC, following the two previous tournaments, held in 2006 and 2009. Unlike the tw ...

Netherlands 6, Chinese Taipei 5

The Netherlands defeated Chinese Taipei in the ninth inning with a walk-off walk, keeping Taipei from advancing to the next round since the

Israel 4, Netherlands 2

Israel beat the Netherlands, ranked # 9 in the world and including a number of prominent Major Leaguers, 4−2 as Israeli relief pitcher

got the save. In what NBC reported was thought to be the tallest batter-pitcher matchup in baseball history, the Dutch team’s pitcher Loek van Mil walked Israel's first baseman Nate Freiman.

South Korea 11, Chinese Taipei 8

South Korea took third place in the pool, as it beat Taiwan in 10 innings, 11−8.">"S Korea takes 3rd place with win over Taiwan,"
''Taipei Times''. Taiwan, which came in last in the pool, will now need to play qualification games in order to qualify for the next WBC tournament.

References

External links

Official website
{{2017 World Baseball Classic

Pool A Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

World Baseball Classic Pool A 2010s in Seoul Guro District, Seoul International baseball competitions hosted by South Korea World Baseball Classic Pool A World Baseball Classic Pool A Sports competitions in Seoul Baseball in Seoul