Israel on Tuesday beat Taipei 15-7 in Seoul, South Korea, in its second win in as many days, to keep its first place in Pool A and virtually guarantee its path to the second round pool in Tokyo. With the team from the Netherlands yet to play its first game, Israel has already beaten two of its three rivals in the first round, South Korea (2-1) and Teipei.
Israel took control of the game with four consecutive hits and four runs in the top of the first inning. Ryan Lavarnway then scored a two-run homer in the third, and Nate Freiman a three-run homer in the ninth for a combined 20 hits.
Taipei scored three runs in the sixth, cutting Israel’s lead to 6-3, but Taipei’s bullpen fell apart in the top of the seventh, allowing five Israeli runs.
Should Israel beat the Netherlands on Wednesday, it would move to the next round regardless of the rest of the scores in its home pool.
Under WBC rules, any player eligible for citizenship of a country, even if they do not have it, may play for that team. This entitles Israel to have non-Israeli citizens of Jewish heritage play for the team, since the Law of Return allows anyone with one Jewish grandparent or anyone married to a Jew to ask for Israeli citizenship.
In 2013, a number of Major League players of Jewish descent, including Ian Kinsler and Kevin Youkilis, publicly expressed interest in playing for Israel in the World Baseball Classic. However, because Israel’s qualifying game was played in September 2012, during the Major League season, Israel played without its Major League players and narrowly lost to Spain.
Israel’s WBC 2017 qualifiers took place in MCU Park, Brooklyn, against Pakistan, Brazil, and Great Britain. Israel won the first two games of the competition, beating Great Britain and Brazil. Israel then defeated Great Britain 9-1 in the finals.