Justin Erasmus

Justin Erasmus (born 22 January 1990 in Johannesburg) is a South African Australian professional baseball pitcher for the Brisbane Bandits of the Australian Baseball League (ABL) and Amsterdam Baseball of Euro League Baseball (ELB). Although Erasmus was born in South Africa, he grew up in Brisbane, Australia where he started his baseball career and has represented both countries.

Career

He was signed by the Red Sox as an international free agent in 2007. Justin was named to the South Africa national baseball team for the 2009 World Baseball Classic where he started against Mexico, giving up an RBI double and two-run home-run to Adrian Gonzalez, finishing the tournament 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA.

He spent 2009 and 2010 with the Gulf Coast League Red Sox. While in the Gulf Coast League, Erasmus kept his ERA to 2.09 while pitching over 56 innings. In Australia, Justin debuted for the Brisbane Bandits on the 13th of November, 2010 against the Perth Heat. In 6 games, including 3 starts he conceded a 6.38 ERA over 18.1 innings in the hitter friendly Australian Baseball League.

In 2011 he was promoted to the Greenville Drive in Low-A where he pitched an even more outstanding 1.11 ERA over 40.2 innings. His performance earned him a call up the Australia national baseball team for the 2011 Baseball World Cup where he conceded 1 earned run over 2 innings, picking up the win against Germany.

Justin's brother Bradley Erasmus represented South Africa as a catcher in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.