myworldofbaseball

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) 12 and under World Cup will be played in Tainan City from July 26 to August 4. Tainan City will be hosting the 12 and under until 2027, holding the next five events. They will be the Williamsburg of the WBSC. Fiji is the one interesting new player in this tournament. Taiwan won this event in 2011, the first year it was played, but the United States did not participate in that tournament. The last three events the United States has won the championship. Below are the groupings for the tournament.

Group A

Taiwan, Japan, Czech Republic, South Africa, Cuba and Fiji

Group B

United States, Mexico, Korea, Australia, Venezuela and Italy

At one point the Perth Heat were the dominant team in Australian baseball taking four titles in five years from the 2010/11 season to the 2014/15 season. The Brisbane Bandits have ruled Australian baseball the last four years.

They swept a best two out of three against the Perth Heat, winning the second game 9-4. A six run third inning put the game out of reach, with solo homeruns by T.J.Bennet, Wade Dutton and Andrew Campbell in the first, second and fourth innings tallying the other three runs. David Sutherland cleared the bases with a three run double in the third to fuel that inning.

Tim Atherton dominated the Heat bats striking out 10 in eight innings. He gave up seven hits, but four of them left the park two by Robbie Glendinning.

The Bandits won the opener of the best two out of three on the road 3-2. Logan Wade slashed two doubles to score twice. His second double set the stage for an RBI single by Wade Dutton to break a 2-2 tie. Loek Van Mil preserved the win with two shutout innings. Ryan Searle picked up the save with a perfect ninth. Ryan Bollinger got the win with six solid innings of work.

Australia qualified for the Under 18 World Cup in Korea this year with a 5-0 win over American Samoa. The game was called after four innings because of rain, which would disappoint many Samoan fans. American Samoa had pulled an upset over Australia earlier in pool play winning 4-3.

Australia was declared the champion based on their 16-0 win over Samoa in the playoffs. American Samoa then defeated third place Guam 15-6 to earn another shot at Australia. Mother Nature did not allow that game to be completed.

New Zealand finished fourth and Palau fifth in the tournament.

It is a little difficult to follow the ABL since the website is unable to show standings or stats but an ABL record was set when the Brisbane Bandits blasted nine homeruns in their 21-5 victory over the Korean expansion team Geelong-Korea yesterday. Riley Unroe, T.J. Bennett, Andrew Campbell, Donald Lutz, Wynton Bernard, David Sutherland, Wade Dutton and Daniel de La Calle all went deep. Calle went deep twice, including hitting a grand slam meaning Logan Wade was the only player in the starting lineup who failed to hit a homerun.

On the Geelong side, Byeong-Geun Kim served up four homeruns in less than four innings of work. Jae-Gon Lee coughed up five blasts in a little over four innings of work. Lee was left in long enough to give up 15 runs during that time to raise his ERA to 13.98. On the bright side Hwi Kwon threw one inning of perfect relief in the ninth to lower his ERA to 10.58.

The top 12 teams from the Premier 12 will compete in November 2019 for two spots in the 2020 Olympics. The 12 teams will be broken out into groups of four similar to the World Baseball Classic. These games will be held November 2-8 in Mexico, Taiwan and Korea. Two teams from each of these these groups of four will advance to the finals in Tokyo. They will play the games November 11-16 in the Tokyo Dome and Chiba Marine Stadium in pool play. On November 17 the finals will be held with the top two teams playing against each other and the third and fourth place teams competing for the bronze. This could be rather anticlimactic since the top two teams have already qualified for the Olympics and third place only gets you a bronze medal. But athletes play for pride.

The 12 teams that are eligible to compete are (in order of ranking):

1) Japan, 2) United States, 3) Korea, 4) Taiwan, 5) Cuba, 6) Mexico, 7) Australia, Netherlands, 9) Venezuela, 10) Canada, 11) Puerto Rico, 12) Dominican Republic

Just missing from qualifying for the event are Panama, Colombia and Nicaragua, which finished 13-15 in the rankings.

Korea is the defending champions of the only Premier 12 to be played to date. The United States finished second and Japan third. The November time frame has been established to allow the countries to bring their top players to compete in this event. The professional leagues from Japan, United States, Taiwan and Korea will be over. Cuba will postpone their Nacional Series schedule as they do for the World Baseball Classic. It will be the best baseball has to offer outside of the World Baseball Classic.

There are not as many countries that participant in woman’s baseball. Japan is the most dominant, currently carrying a 30 game world cup winning streak. Canada, the number two rated team came the closest to beating Japan in the World Cup, losing 2-1 in a Super Round game. Taiwan jumped three spots after finishing second in last year’s World Cup. Most of the top United States players are encouraged to play softball because of a lack of baseball programs for women. They dropped a notch after failing to medal the last two years. Below are the top 14 countries for woman’s baseball:

1. Japan - 2000 points
2. Canada - 1300
3. Taiwan - 1297
4. United States - 1094
5. Venezuela - 989
6. Australia - 904
7. Cuba - 537
8. Korea - 500
9. Dominican Republic - 433
10. Hong Kong - 363
11. Netherlands - 311
12. Puerto Rico - 267
13. India - 104
14. Pakistan - 67

Below are the names of the players who made the All Tournament Team in the Under 23 World Cup.

Catcher - Orlando Pina (Mexico) .320, 2, 8
First Base - Hisanori Yasuda (japan) .393, 1, 8 MVP
Second Base - Brailan Perez (Colombia) .462, 0, 5 with two triples and 4 stolen bases
Third Base - Dervin Pomare (Colombia) .522, 1, 10 with a 1.368 OPS
Shortstop - Jorna Rodriguez (Venezuela) .333, 0, 3
Outfield - Norberto Obeso (Mexico) .500, 0, 5 with 5 doubles, 1.363 OPS
Outfield - Carlos Vidal (Colombia) .387, 1, 7
Outfield - Bojarski Ulrich (Australia) .379, 4, 11 with 1.297 OPS
Designated Hitter - Leandro Cedeno (Venezuela).306, 2, 10
Starting Pitcher - Francisco Haro (Mexico) 2-0, 1.93 with 18 whiffs in 14 innings
Best Relief Pitcher - Kakeru Narita (Japan) 1-1, 1.17 with 1 save

Other Players Worth Note

Australia

Jack Barrie - .391, 3, 8
Mitchell Warke-Edwards - .500, 2, 6 with 1.200 slugging and 1.783 OPS

Colombia

Juan Zabala - .417, 1, 7
Juan Escorcia - 0.90 ERA with 14 whiffs in 10 IP
Reiver SanMartin - 1-0, 0.82, .179 opponent average

Czech Republic

Martin Muzik - .250, 2, 7

Dominican Republic

Claudio Galva - 0.00 ERA, 11 whiffs in 9 innings, .097 opponent average
Raffi Vizcaino - 0.00 ERA, .105 opponent average

Japan

Kairi Shimada - .344, 1, 1 with 12 runs scored with 5 stolen bases
Yasuhito Uchida - .233, 3, 8
Hiroki Kondo - 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 17 whiffs in 15 innings, .189 opponent average
Kosuke Sakaguchi - 1-0, 0.77, 16 whiffs in 11.2 innings, .179 opponent average
Soichiro Yamazaki - 1-0, 0.00, .194 opponent average

Korea

Chan-Hyung Kim - .286, 3, 9
Min-Hyeok Kim - .367, 2, 7
Dong-Hui Han - .324, 2, 7 with 12 runs scored
Jin-Won Ye - .410, 0, 4
Sung-Young Choi - 2-1, 2.31, 13 whiffs in 11.2 innings, .171 opponent average
Sang-Hyun Jeon - 2-0, 1.80, .206 opponent average

Mexico

Roberto Valenzuela - .263, 3, 9 with 3 stolen bases

Netherlands

Sherton Apostel - .375, 2, 9
Francinel Martina - .367, 1, 7

Puerto Rico

Isan Diaz - .214, 4, 5 with 8 runs scored
Jonathan Bermudez - 0.00 ERA, 10 whiffs in 7 innings pitched, .048 opponent average
Sidney Duprey - 1-1, 1.04, 11 whiffs in 8.2 innings
Luis Sanchez - 1.17, 1 save, .125 opponent average

South Africa

Tyler Smith - .433, 0, 4

Taiwan

Wei-Han Hong - .367, 0, 1, .472 OBA
Liang-Chih Chen - 0.60, .196 opponent average

Venezuela

Anthony Concepcion - .346, 1, 6
Carlos Machado - .429, 0, 5
Jesus Lujano - .400, 0, 5
Yonny Hernandez - .200, 0, 2 with 6 stolen bases
Nivaldo Rodriguez - 0.00 ERA, .077 opponent average

The Netherlands won their first game, upsetting Taiwan and the Czech Republic almost shocked the Dominican Republic. Five of the six teams have advanced to the Super Round.

Venezuela 9 Korea 2

The two teams will advance to the Super Round, but Venezuela will advance with no losses while Korea will carry over two losses. And the domination they received at the hands of Venezuela. Nivaldo Rodriguez shutout Korea on two hits for four innings. The Koreans were able to pull to within 3-2 against the Venezuelan bullpen in the sixth. Jose Rodriguez shut them out for the final 3.2 innings. In total the Venezuelan pitchers finished the game with 14 strikeouts.

The Venezuelans were able to spray 13 hits and six walks into nine runs. The top two hitters in the lineup, Yonny Hernandez and Jesus Lujano led the charge with two RBIs each. Hernandez and Carlos Machado led all players with three hits each. Of the 13 Venezuelan hits, only one went for extra bases.

Sung-Ju Moon led Korea with three of their seven hits and drove in both runs with a double.

Japan 7 Colombia 2

Japan remained undefeated with their win over Colombia. Colombia must still beat Taiwan in a makeup game to hope to advance. Colombia scored first to take an early 1-0 lead. Two three run innings, one in the third and another in the seventh was too much for Colombia. Taiga Matsuo got the big hit for Japan with his two run triple in the third to give Japan a 2-1 lead. He later scored on a wild pitch. Hisanori Yasuda also drove in two runs with two sacrifice flies, one in the seventh and the other in the ninth.

Dominican Republic 9 Czech Republic 8

The Dominicans advanced to the super round with a wild win over the Czechs. In the tenth they scored two runs to win the game. Jeison Guzman is credited with the walk off single to give the Dominicans the win. The Czechs remain winless.

The Dominicans had jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after two and all seemed cool after that. Hansel Moreno punched a two run shot in the third and Wendell Rijo went solo. In the fifth Martin Muzik finished off the five run fifth with a three run homer and the game was tied 5-5. The Dominicans called on Eduardo del Rosario to finish the game, throwing 3.2 innings of almost shutout ball. He gave up one unearned run in the 10th on a wild pitch. In extra innings in international play runners are placed on first and second to begin the inning.

Netherlands 10 Taiwan 9

The Netherlands diminished Taiwan’s chances of advancing to the Super Round. They must now beat Colombia to have any hope of advancing. Like the Dominican game, the Netherlands scored two runs in the bottom of the tenth to win the game. The last run was scored when Tijmen Takke was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Taiwan chose to walk Sherton Apostel to load the bases and face Takke, who had come in the game as a pinch runner. Apostel was 3 for 5 with two doubles, a homerun and four RBIs.

Netherlands had jumped out to an early 5-0 lead but could not hold it.

Mexico 13 South Africa 3

Mexico advanced to the Super Round. South Africa scored their first runs of the tournament. Both teams were happy. Roberto Valenzuela and Orlando Pina both went deep, each with their second homeruns of the tournament. The two combined to drive in seven of the 13 runs for Mexico.

Puerto Rico 3 Australia 2

Puerto Rico knocked Australia out of the Super Round with the win. At 2-3 Puerto Rico fails to advance as well. Isan Diaz drove in all the runs for Puerto Rico with two homeruns. He hit a solo shot in the third and a two run blast in the fifth. He came into the game 1 for 12. Luis Sanchez pitched two perfect innings to stamp out the victory and eliminate Australia from the Super Round.

Only Japan and Venezuela remain undefeated after the fourth day. Japan seems to do it with their pitching while Venezuela relies on their bats.

Japan 5 Netherlands 0

Japan completed their second shutout of the tournament. The European teams remain winless in these events. Hiroki Konda dominated in seven innings, striking out 12 and allowing just three hits. Japan scored all five of their runs in the first, taking advantage of three walks then coasted the rest of the way. Taiga Matsuo drove in two runs with his triple and Hisanori Yasuda drove in two with a single.

Venezuela 7 Dominican Republic 2

Venezuela knocked off a tough Dominican team to remain undefeated. For the Dominicans it is their second loss. They scored both their runs in the second inning on a two run homer by Martin Taveras, his second of the tournament. Ivan Andueza came on in relief after the third inning and held the Dominicans hitless for six innings, striking out 10 and walking two. Carlos Machado hit a two run single in a three run first, which Andueza confirmed was all the runs the Venezuelans needed. Jorna Rodriguez finished a perfect 3 for 3 hitting from the ninth spot in the order with three runs scored. He also stole two bases.

Korea 14 Australia 7

Korea got a big win to take over second place in pool two, tacking a second loss to Australia’s ledger. Australia scored six in the opening frame but could not hold the lead. They again got big production from the bottom of their order, with number eight hitter Mitchel Warke-Edwards going deep twice, once in the first inning with a three run blast and again in the sixth with a solo shot.

Korea bounced back in the second inning with eight runs. Chan-Hyung Kim hit the first of his two homeruns in the inning, a grand slam to pull Korea to within one. Gyeong-Won Jun hit a two run double in the inning to put Korea up 7-6. Kim blasted another homer in the eighth, a two run bomb to give him six RBIs for the game. Dong-Hui Han sealed the victory with his three run homer in the seventh. He finished the day 3 for 4 with three runs scored.

Taiwan 12 South Africa 0

Taiwan got their first win and South Africa extended their scoreless streak to 0 for the tournament. Yun-Chen Tai walloped a grand slam homer in an eight run third that put the game out of reach.

Mexico 7 Colombia 6

Mexico got a big win giving Colombia their first loss. It also put them in second place at 3-1. Mexico had jumped out to an early 5-1 lead. Carlos Morales had pitched five shutout innings. He was taken out in the sixth after issuing a one out walk. The bullpen coughed up the lead in the seventh, giving up five runs. Derwin Pomare got the big hit, a bases clearing double that drove in three. Pomare finished the day with four RBIs, delivering an RBI single in the sixth that gave Colombia their first run.

Not deterred, Mexico battled back. They scored the tying run in the bottom of the seventh on a strikeout/wild pitch, scoring a run without benefit of putting the ball in play. The leadoff hitter walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on a wild pitch. The walks continued to hurt Colombia with another leadoff walk in the eighth scoring on a Roberto Valenzuela triple in right field to give Mexico the lead.

Erick Casillas got credit for the win, working his second inning of relief to close out the victory. He gave up a two out double to Milton Ramos but retired the next hitter on a fly out to end the game.

Puerto Rico 20 Czech Republic 0

Puerto Rico got their first win, their bats taking it out on the winless Czechs. The game only went five as Puerto Rico scored in every inning. Gabriel Cancel was the big bat with six RBIs, including a three run homer in the first. Xavier Fernandez clubbed a solo shot in the first, finishing the day 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs and 3 runs scored. Lean Marrero and Aldemar Burgos each crossed the plate four times.

Rain forced the postponement of the Netherlands/South Africa and Taiwan/Colombia games. The other games were played with the only minor upset the Australian win over previously undefeated Dominican Republic.

Australia 4 Dominican Republic 3

Australia got back in the super round playoff race winning their second game of pool play over the previously undefeated Dominican Republic. They scored all their runs in the fourth inning with Jordan McArdle getting the big hit with his three run homerun. Australia has now gotten three homeruns from their 8th and 9th hitters in the order.

Martin Taveras got the scoring going for the Dominican Republic in the second with a solo shot. He added a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth to give the Dominicans an early 2-0 lead, but they could not hold it.

Jack Enciondo pitched the ninth inning to close out the victory, though he did give up a deep fly to left that left some Aussie fans squirming in their seats.

Japan 7 Mexico 2

Japan won the battle of the undefeateds. Yasuhito Uchida hit his second homerun of the tournament, a three run blast in the first inning to get things started for Japan and score all the runs they needed to win the game.

Mexico got a solo shot from Bernardo Heras in the fourth, but needed a lot more to win this game.

Korea 6 Puerto Rico 3

Korea won their second game, knocking Puerto Rico out of any chance of getting to the super round. Sang-Hyun Jeon had trouble finding the plate, walking five, but allowed just one run in his five innings of work. Jin-Won Ye, Kyeong-Tae Hwang and Chan-Hyung Kim each led the offense with three hits each. Ye drove in two runs and scored one from the leadoff spot and Hwang also drove in two and scored once. Jung-Yong Yi worked the last two innings to complete the save.

Puerto Rico had scored first on a solo shot from Emmanuel Rivera in the opening frame.

Venezuela 8 Czech Republic 2

Venezuela remained undefeated, overcoming a 2-0 deficit to easily defeat the Czech Republic. For the Czechs they remain winless and are eliminated from advancing to the Super Round. The Venezuelan pitchers were a bit wild, walking nine hitters but the Czechs stranded 12 runners, not taking advantage of their opportunities.

Leandro Cedeno and Joscar Alvarez hit solo shots for Venezuela. Cedeno’s homerun in the four run sixth broke a 2-2 tie. Cruz Noriega pitched the last three innings to earn the save.