Canada suffered its second straight loss to a team from Oceania last night, as Australia silenced their bats in a 5-0 win.

Australian ace Jerremyah Selu struck out 10 in a complete game shutout, allowing just three hits and a walk over seven innings.

The loss is Canada’s third in five games, and came just 24 hours after a 12-6 defeat to New Zealand.

In all likelihood, the hosts will now need to run the table in order to have a shot at a playoff spot come Saturday.

Canadian right-hander Tyler Randerson was effective until the fifth, when he allowed a two-run homer to Callum Beashel to extend Australia’s early lead to 3-0.

Australia would add two more runs – aided by two Canadian errors – en route to their third victory in six games.

Newfoundland reliever Eric Healey replaced Randerson in the sixth and threw two scoreless innings.

Selu said playing the hosts in front of a large Canadian crowd heightened the intensity of the match.

“With the crowd getting behind the home team, it really gives them an advantage, so we tried to use their drive to motivate us to get the win,” said the 19-year-old from the Australian capital of Canberra.

While Selu was throwing heat, he admitted he isn’t really sure how fast he throws.

“I honestly have no idea,” he said. “I haven’t been told in the past five, six years. But in our pre-worlds buildup, I kind of set a standard to myself to try and prove I was the best pitcher on our team.”

Six games into the world championships, Selu appears to have cemented his spot atop the rotation, with an ERA of 0.45 in 15.1 innings pitched.

His ERA trails only Argentina’s spectacular duo of Huemul Mata and Roman Godoy, who deal pitches reaching speeds as high as 78 mph. The duo has not yet allowed a run.

Leadoff batter Tyler Pauli collected one of Canada’s three hits on the night.

He continues to be the team’s hottest batter with a .563 average through five games – second best in the tournament.

“I think there was some negative thoughts going through some guys’ heads up to bat,” said the 19-year-old from Mitchell, Ont. “Once they struck out a few times, it started to get to us a little bit.”

Pauli believes the hits will start coming soon.

“We’ve been having some tough luck – a lot of bounces not going our way,” he said. “The baseball gods haven’t been with us. But I think if we keep swinging the bat and have a positive attitude, things are going to go our way eventually.”

Second baseman Josh Elliot said from here on out, his team’s biggest battle may be to remain positive.

Elliot, a 19-year-old native of Prince Albert, Sask., went 0-for-2 with a strikeout against Selu.

“If we’re down and out, we’re not going to come back. We’ve got to stay positive. I thought we had good at-bats. We hit the ball hard, but they had some pretty good defence.

“We’ve got some games coming up here that we have to win. We have to win out, and I think definitely we can do it,” Elliot said.

Today, Canada’s medal hopes will be put to the test as they square off with both Mexico at 2 p.m. and Denmark at 7:30.

“Anything can happen on any given day,” assistant coach Doug Chase told the Star. “It’s never over ’til it’s over.

“You see errors happen; you see hits happen when you least expect it,” the 52-year-old from Port Alberni, B.C., said.

“The kids are developing. So you just stay with the process, you stay positive, and you believe in your talents. What happens, happens.”

Chase said his team’s struggles at the plate can be attributed to a variety of things, including lack of familiarity with pitchers and heightened pitch speeds.

“Five miles an hour makes a big difference,” he said. “The kids are having great swings at the ball. They’re just having trouble with the timing of it.”

NOTES: In other action Tuesday, the United States defeated Japan for the first time in tournament history 4-2 ... Jimbo Pernetti had all four RBIs for the U.S., going 2-for-2 with a homer and a walk ... Japanese slugger Kento Okazaki hit a two-run shot ... Phillip Zimmerman pitched a complete game to pick up his third victory of the tournament ... Mexico pounded seven home runs in their 13-0 win over Singapore, including three from Daniel Durazo and two from Cesar Godoy ... Czech pitcher Michal Holobradek leads the tournament with 37 Ks.