They were so close. The Dutch were three outs away from becoming the second European team that pulled off an upset but they blew a five run lead in the seventh inning and fell to Korea in the eighth.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands scored thrice in the first inning on a sac fly and a throwing error that allowed Delano Selassa and Sheadion Jamanika to score. In the second inning they added another run when Delano Selassa singled home Max Kops, who had gotten on base thanks to a double to right center field.
By the time, Korea got on the board, the Dutch had a comfortable 6-0 lead after they scored two more runs on a bases-loaded walk and a 4-3 groundout.
But those two Korean runs did not seem to hurt the Dutch as they scored one more run in the sixth inning.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Eric Mendez took the mound to close the game, but that choice did not pan out quite well. After Mendez loaded the bases thanks to two singles and a fielding error, Korea scored on a single and a bases clearing triple. That was the sign for manager De Jong to pull Mendez in favor of Raf Cocu. The young closer of Oosterhout Twins got out of the inning but had to give up a sac fly that allowed Korea to tie the game at seven.
In the tie-break, the Dutch failed to cash in . Korea on the other hand knew how to deal with the tie-breaker situation as it moved the two runners to the next bases thanks to a sac bunt. The Dutch intentionally walked Junghyun Park and then a throwing error by the Dutch first baseman allowed Korea to score the winning run.
The Tweet below shows the highlights of the game.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 
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