South Africa national baseball team

Infobox National baseball team

Name = South Africa national baseball team
Country = flag|South Africa
Federation =
Confederation = African Baseball & Softball Association
Manager =
Olympic apps =
Olympic first =
Olympic best =
WBC apps = 1
WBC first = 2006
WBC best = 16
WC apps =
WC first =
WC best =
IC apps =
IC first =
IC best = The South African National Baseball team is the team that represents the Republic of South Africa in international baseball competitions such as the World Baseball Classic.

South Africa's inclusion in the WBC was considered rather surprising by many observers. South Africa has never sent a player to Major League Baseball, indeed, the highest a South African player has ever gotten in the minor leagues has been Double-A (two, in fact: Barry Armitage, a relief pitcher on the South African WBC roster, and Tim Harrell, a pitcher who was drafted in the 20th round, 606th overall, in 1998 by the Los Angeles Dodgers). Even more amusing to many fans was the fact that the South Africans were in the pool containing Team USA, Canada and Mexico, all major baseball powers while South Africa's roster contained players that just graduated high school.

But in its first game, South Africa nearly pulled off an upset of Canada, a team loaded with major leaguers. South Africa took an 8-7 lead into the ninth inning before falling 11-8. This would be as close as the team would get to winning a game. The South Africans lost the next two games to Mexico 10-4, and to the United States in a mercy rule-shortened 17-0 rout.

World Baseball Classic

South Africa competed in the inaugural World Baseball Classic, finishing 16th in the tournament.

References