(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Quarter Finals set; Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico complete top-8
Nederlands
    TAOYUAN / TAICHUNG / TAIPEI / DOULIU (Taiwan) -
The Premier12 Quarter Finals for Monday have been set.
On Sunday (November 15), the preliminary round ended with a 3-2 win in 10 innings from the USA vs. South Korea.
Canada, Kingdom Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and USA secured their spot in the top-8 on Saturday.
Today, they were joined by Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico.
On Monday, the Quarter Finals will be played in Taichung and Taoyuan.
Starting at 12:30 PM local time (5:30 AM Dutch time), Canada meets Mexico in Taichung, while the Netherlands will play vs. the USA in Taoyuan.
In the evening, starting at 6:30 PM ( 11:30 AM Dutch time), Souh Korea will play vs. Cuba in Taichung.
Playing in Taoyuan at that time will be Puerto Rico and Japan.
Today, the Netherlands Kingdom Team lost 3-1 to Canada, which stayed unbeaten and finished in first place.
The Orange finished in a tie with Cuba, which nipped Italy 2-1 and therefore ended in second place, based on the head-to-head result against the Netherlands, which finished in third place.
Recap of this game
A recap of the other games today is listed beneath.
(November 15)
Dominican Republic vs. Mexico
The day began with Mexico winning 9-6 vs. the Dominican Republic at Taoyuan.
To reach the top-8, Mexico had to win, but they now had to wait for the result of the evening game between Venezuela and Japan.
When Venezuela had won that game, it had qualified and would Mexico have been eliminated.
But Venezuela lost and so, Mexico advanced to the next round, thanks to its 6-4 win against Venezuela in their first game of the event.
Mexico was off to a good start and led 5-0 in the top of the third inning.
But after the fifth inning, the score was tied at 6-6.
Mexico scored three runs in the first inning, thanks to doubles by Tim Torres and Yadir Drake and an error.
Two runs were added in the third inning when Rudy Flores homered and Jerome Pena added a sacrifice fly.
The Dominicans got two runs back in the third and added two more in the fourth to make it a 5-4 score.
In the fifth, Mexico made it 6-4 via an sac-fly, but the Dominicans came alongside in the bottom of the fifth.
Robinzon Diaz led off with a single, then Jonathan Galvez homered with one out to make it a 6-6 score.
Mexico re-took the lead in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly by Robert Lopez.
Two runs were added in the eighth on singles by Humberto Sosa and Yadir Drake.
After the game, the long wait for Mexico began whether or not they advanced to the Quarter Finals.
Puerto Rico vs. Chinese Taipei
At Taichung, Puerto Rico and Chinese Taipei played a thriller.
In the end, Puerto Rico won 7-4 on a walk-off, grand slam homerun and with that secured itself of a spot in the Quarter Finals.
When Taiwan had won, it had qualified together with Cuba.
But now, the status of both Taiwan and Cuba remained unclear.
Taipei now had to wait for the result of the game between Cuba and Italy in the evening.
With an Italian win, Taiwan also would have reached the top-8.
That would have resulted in a 3-way tie between Taiwan, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
In that case, Puerto Rico would have finished in first place, followed by Taiwan and Cuba.
But Cuba won narrowly and became the fourth team in Pool A to reach the the top-8, meaning Taiwan was eliminated.
The line score of this game went back and force, as both teams scored in the same inning.
In the top of the fourth, Taipei opened the score when Chih-Sheng Lin led off with a homerun.
But in the bottom of the fourth, Joiset Feliciano led off with a double, moved on a sac-bunt and scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
Taiwan left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning and as the score was still tied after nine innings, the tie-break came into effect from the tenth inning on.
After a scoreless tenth inning (each team left two runners), both teams scored twice in the eleventh at bat.
In the top of the 11th, the two tie-break runners advanced on a sac-bunt, then an intentional walk followed.
But singles by Chih-Hsien Chiang and Chih-Kang Kao then gave Taiwan a 4-2 lead.
In the bottom of the 11th, Puerto Rico tied the score again.
The bases got loaded via a bunt-single, then Jorge Jimenez made it a 4-4 score with a 2-run double.
Hereafter, the bases got loaded via an intentional walk, then a force out at the plate followed.
But Puerto Rico would leave three runners behind.
In the top of the 12th, Taiwan left two runners behind.
In the bottom of the 12th, the bases got loaded when Juan Silva reached on a bunt-single.
Hereafter, Aldo Mendez drove the ball into rightfield for a walk-off, grand slam homerun to give Puerto Rico a 7-4 victory, a spot in the Quarter Finals and concluded the game that lasted 4 hours and 41 minutes.
Initially, the box score listed 5-4 as final score with Mendez being credited with a 2-run double, but was changed later in the day.
On TV-replays, it appeared that the ball caroomed back into the field from the top of the fence, but it really was a homerun, as it cleared the fence and caroomed back into the field from the basement of the stands.
Cuba vs. Italy
In the evening, at Douliu City, Cuba and Italy played a quick game, that lasted only two hours and 21 minutes.
Italy played its best game of the tournament and took an 1-0 lead in the second inning.
Cuba came alongside, but it took until the seventh inning that the 1-1 was broken.
Cuba won 2-1 and with that became the fourth and final team in Pool A to secure itself of a spot in the Quarter Finals.
A loss would have resulted in the elimination of Cuba and Chinese Taipei would have qualified instead.
But now Taiwan ended up in a tie with Puerto Rico, which had won vs. the Asians earlier in the day.
In the second inning, Nicholas Morreale led off with a single, moved on a sacrifice bunt by Freddy Noguera and was awarded third base on a balk.
He then scored when Alberto Mineo followed with a single.
In the bottom of the second inning, Alexander Malleta led off with a walk, advanced to second and third base on two wild pitches, then scored on a 2-out single by Osvaldo Vazquez.
In the next innings, there were not much scoring opportunities, but Cuba stranded two runners in the sixth inning.
Cuba then broke the 1-1 tie in the seventh inning.
Yordan Manduley led off with a walk and advanced on a sac-bunt, then Yulieski Gurriel walked.
A following single by Alberto Despaigne then gave Cuba a 2-1 lead.
Cuba held on to the minimal lead and advanced to the next round.
Japan vs. Venezuela
The next decision fell in the game between Japan and Venezuela in Taoyuan, which ended in a 6-5 win for the Asian squad, which stayed unbeaten in Pool B.
When Venezuela had would won, it would have qualified for the top-8 and Mexico would have been eliminated.
Venezuela held the lead three times, 1-0 in the first inning, 3-1 in the fourth and 5-4 in the ninth, but ended up empty-handed and was eliminated, meaning Mexico advanced to the next round to complete the quartet from Pool B.
In the top of the first inning, Rainer Olmedo led off with a homerun to give Venezuela an early lead.
After Venezuela stranded two runners in the second inning, Japan came alongside in the bottom of the second on a single by Ryosuke Hirata.
Venezuela re-took the lead by scoring twice in the fourth inning.
With one out, Luis Jimenez singled, then Juan Carlos Apodaca homered to make it 3-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, Japan got a run back on a single by Shogo Akiyama, but Venezuela held onto the lead in the next innings.
Japan then scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth to take a 4-3 lead.
With one out, Tetsuto Yamada singled, then, after a pitching change, Shingo Kawabata doubled.
An intentional walk and pitching change followed, but then Sho Nakata delivered a 2-run double to give Japan the lead.
In the top of the ninth, Venezuela took the lead for the third time, scoring two runs.
Juan Carlos Apodaca and Francis Caraballo singled with one out.
Their pinch-runners Yonathan Sivira and Mario Martinez advanced when Renny Osuna walked, then both scored on a pinch-hit double by José Yepez, making it 5-4 in favor of Venezuela.
In the bottom of the ninth, off of a new pitcher, Kenta Imamiya led off with a single, then Shogo Akiyama was hit by a pitch.
The two moved on a sacrifice bunt, then an intentional walk loaded the bases.
Moments later, Imamiya scored the tying run on a wild pitch!
Another intentional walk followed to set up a force play and new pitcher was inserted.
But he gave up a walk-off single to Akira Nakamura that gave Japan a 6-5 victory.
South Korea vs. USA
The preliminary round ended in Taipei with a 4-3 victory for the USA vs. South Korea in 10 innings.
The game took just over four hours and while it was the first of the four evening-games to start, it also was the last to finish.
The winning run was scored after a disputable call in the top of the tenth inning.
Both teams already had clinched a spot in the Quarter Finals on Saturday, but the outcome of today's game would determine second and third place and with that, of course their respective oppponents in the next round.
With the win, the USA finished in second place and now will be the next opponent of the Netherlands Kingdom Team on Monday.
In case, the Koreans had won, they would have faced the Orange squad, but now will meet Cuba instead.
In this game, Dutch umpire Winfried Berkvens was at first base.
The USA, which isn't really dominating in this tournament, took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning.
Matt McBride led off with a double, then Joe Sclafani walked.
Herafter, they respectively scored on a single by Tyler Pastornicky and a double by Dan Rohlfing.
With one out, a walk loaded the bases, but the Americans would leave three runners behind.
After Team USA again stranded three runners in the sixth inning, South Korea came alongside in the bottom of the seventh after a pitching change.
Starter Zeke Spruill had struckout seven batters and gave up only three hits in six innings.
But the bullpen then ran into problems, as has been the case in various games for several teams.
In the seventh, Dae-ho Lee and pinch-hitter Ah-seop Son led off with walks, then Kyoung-min Hur took over as pinch-runner for Lee.
The two moved on a sacrifice bunt by Jae-won Oh, then both scored on a single by Byung-hun Min to make it a 2-2 score.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, it was Korea that left three runners behind and so the game went into extra innings.
In the top of the 10th, the bases got loaded on a fielder's choice-bunt by Adam Frazier.
Hereafter, pitcher Kyu-min Woo made a great play on a bunt by Jacob May, which ended in a double play.
Moments later, Frazier stole second base, but on TV-replays it was clearly visible that he slid into the glove of short stop Sang-su Kim.
But instead of being called out, Frazier was ruled safe.
Shortly thereafter, Frazier scored what would be the winning run on a single by Bret Eibner.
In the bottom of the tenth, South Korea got the bases loaded.
With two outs, the two tie-break runners advanced when Byung-ho Park walked.
Park is planning on playing in the Major League next season.
The Minnesota Twins bid 12.85 million dollar to negotiate with him.
But the three runners all were left behind when a grounder ended the game.
And with that, the preliminary round ended and the Quarter Finals were set.
What followed was a meeting by the Organization and the Technical Commission to set up the schedule for Monday and determine what game would be played where and on what time.
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