(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Mexico eliminates Canada; Japan, South Korea also advance to semi-finals
Nederlands
  TAOYUAN / TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
Mexico accounted for the biggest upset in the Quarter Finals of the Premier12 on Monday (November 16) by eliminating Canada, coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3.
Japan and South Korea, the Asian favorites for the final, both advanced to the Semi-Finals.
Japan won 9-3 vs. Puerto Rico, while South Korea outscored Cuba 7-2.
Two years ago, Cuba also didn't reach the final-four during the World Baseball Classic.
Back then, Cuba was eliminated in the second round by the Netherlands.
In the afternoon, the Netherlands Kingdom Team was also eliminated, losing 6-1 to the USA.
Recap of this game
In the Semi-Finals, Mexico now will meet the USA, while Japan plays against South Korea.
The Semi-Finals will be played next Thursday and Friday-evening in the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo (Japan).
Both games begin at 7 PM local time (11 AM Dutch time).
Next Saturday, the Bronze Medal Game and Final will be played in Tokyo.
With today's results, all teams from Pool A were eliminated!
Japan, USA, South Korea and Mexico all played in Pool B in this tournament.
And with this, the current number one and two on the world ranking list (Japan, USA) are now in the final round, joined by number 8 South Korea and number 12 Mexico.
Four of the teams that are listed in the top-seven on the world ranking list didn't qualify for the final round: Cuba (3), Chinese Taipei (4), Netherlands (5) and Canada (7).
(November 16)
Canada vs. Mexico
The biggest upset of the tournament so far is Mexico coming back from a 3-1 deficit to elimimate Canada, which had been unbeaten.
Canada was 5-0 to win Pool A and played convincingly in its five games.
Before traveling to Taiwan, the team also played three good exhibition games against the USA.
With that, Canada became a favorite for not only reaching the medal round, but even a serious contender for reaching the final.
And Canada indeed was on its way to Japan, as it led 3-1 after seven innings.
But then Mexico struck with a 3-run rally and turned the game its way.
With that, Mexico now will play in Japan, while Canada has to return home.
Mexico started the event with a surprise 6-4 win vs. Venezuela, which in the end was decisive for them reaching the Quarter Finals.
Today, at Taichung, Mexico played another good game and were off to a good start.
It took an 1-0 lead in the first inning and held onto it for more than five innings.
Canada then scored three runs in the sixth, only to see Mexico turn around the game in their favor after all.
Mexico opened the score in the first inning.
Lead-off hitter Kevin Medrano reached on an error, then stole second base.
He was then unable to advance on a grounder to third base and an infield-hit to short.
But Medrano then scored on a single by Humberto Sosa to give Mexico an early lead.
Mexico held onto the minimal lead.
Starter Miguel Peña gave up only one basehit in the first four innings and retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced.
In the bottom of the fifth, Canada left two runners.
Canada then appeared to turn the game its way by scoring three runs in the sixth.
With two outs and Tyler O'Neill (fielder's choice) on first base, a wild pitch and a walk for Jordan Lennerton followed.
Next,O'Neill scored the tying run on a single by Rene Tosoni.
With the runners on second and third base, Brock Kjeldgaard delivered a 2-run double that gave Canada a 3-1 lead.
Another single followed, but then Canada stranded runners on first and third base.
After giving up the run in the first inning, Canadian starter Scott Diamond did fine and held Mexico scoreless in the next six innings.
In the second inning, he picked off a runner from first base, then was supported with a double play in the third.
He then retired the side in the next four innings, retiring 14 batters in a row.
But then, as has been seen in several games for several teams during this tournament, the bullpen failed.
Phillippe Aumont took over in the eighth with a 3-1 lead.
Aumont, who pitched one inning the day before against the Netherlands, hit lead-off hitter José Torres, then gave up a single to Juan Perez.
At the same the time, the Netherlands Kingdom Team played against the USA.
With an 1-0 lead, the bullpen gave up runs and costly errors turned the game around.
Canada's bullpen also gave up runs and its defense also committed costly errors.
With runners on first and second base, a force play-grounder ended in an out, but was followed by a throwing error, resulting in runners on second and third base.
Hereafter, the bases got loaded when Kevin Medrano reached on an infield-hit.
Tim Torres then singled in a run and kept the bases loaded.
A force out at home followed, but with two outs, an error was made on a grounder by Humberto Sosa, resulting in two runs that gave Mexico a 4-3 lead.
Canada was unable to erase the sudden deficit.
With two outs in the eighth, closer Brennan Bernardino took over the pitching and ended the inning with a strikeout.
In the ninth, he retired the side, ending by striking out two pinch-hitters.
Canada had been eliminated, Mexico was in the Semi-Final!
Mexico's best recent result so far is the third place in the Pan American Games of 2007.
Back then, Mexico had to play against Nicaragua in the Bronze Medal Game of the event in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
But the game rained out and both teams finished in third place.
Mexico also reached the semi-final in the 2011 Pan American Games, which was hosted for a home crowd in Guadalajara.
Mexico then lost 5-3 to Canada and went on to lose the Bronze Medal-game vs. Cuba, 6-0.
On global tournaments, we have to go back to 1965 for the best Mexican result when it finished in second place on the World Championship in Colombia.
At the World Baseball Classic, Mexico ended in sixth, eighth and eleventh place during the three events held in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
Mexico's Manager is the legendary 81-year old (!) Mike Brito, a longtime scout of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Cuban-born Brito signed some 30 players who went on to reach the Major League, including lefthanded pitcher Fernando Valenzuela and some years ago got the Dodgers to sign outfielder Yasiel Puig.
At Taichung, South Korea decided the game vs. Cuba early, scoring five runs in the second inning.
Cuba was only able to score twice in the fifth inning, but the Koreans got those runs back in the eighth.
Cuba used nine pitchers in this game, while South Korea used 'only' five.
After Korean-starter Won-jun Chang had retired the three Gurriel-brothers in order in the first inning, his teammates rallied for five runs in the top of the second inning.
Cuban-starter Frank Montieth gave up a lead-off triple to Byung-ho Park, who then scored on a single by Byung-hun Min.
When next batter Jae-gyun Hwang also singled, Montieth was relieved by Livan Moinelo.
He gave up an RBI-single to Eui-ji Yang.
After a sacrifice bunt moved the two runners to second and third base, they scored on a single by Keun-woo Jeong.
That led to another pitching change, as Norberto Gonzalez took over.
Jeong was then force out, but next batter Hyun-soo Kim walked.
Miguel Lahera then became the third pitcher for Cuba in this inning, but he gave up a runscoring single to Dae-ho Lee that made it 5-0.
Cuba scored twice in the fifth inning.
Alexander Malleta led off with a single and Osvaldo Vazquez walked, then a runscoring single by Estayle Hernandez followed.
Vazquez tried to advance to third base, but was eliminated there.
After a strikeout, Lourdes Gurriel walked, which marked the end for Chang, who was relieved by Chang-min Lim.
He gave up a runscoring single to Yunieski Gurriel that narrowed the deficit to 5-2.
But that was to be all for Cuba in this game.
South Korea got the two runs back in the top of the eighth.
With one out, Eui-ji Yang homered, which led to another pitching change.
Later in the inning, Jae-ho Kim added a runscoring single to make it 7-2.
Dutch scorer Linda Steijger handled the play-by-scoring for this game.
At Taoyuan, Japan outscored Puerto Rico 9-3 and also outhit the team, 13-7.
With the win, Japan remained unbeaten.
Japan was productive in almost all innings and led 9-0 after eight innings.
Puerto Rico then scored its three runs in the top of the ninth inning.
Japan opened the score with one run in the first inning on a single by Yoshitomo Tsutsugo.
The team then added a run in the third on a double by Ryosuke Hirata, but that also ended in an out at the plate when another runner also tried to score.
In the fourth, Japan doubled its lead.
Akira Nakamura led off with a walk, then Motohito Shima reached on a fielder's choice, which didn't result in an out.
With one out, the two scored on a double by Hayato Sakamoto.
Japan scored its next run in the sixth inning on a single by Hayato Sakamoto, but also left the bases loaded.
Japan then scored twice in the seventh and eighth inning.
In the seventh, Ryosuke Hirata led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Nobuhiro Matsuda.
Next, Akira Nakamura walked and later scored on a single by Motohito Shima.
In the eighth, Akira Nakamura added a 2-run single to lift the lead to 9-0.
Puerto Rico didn't got much scoring opportunities.
But the team then scored three runs in the ninth inning after a pitching change.
Juan Silva and Aldo Mendez led off with a single, then scored when Joiset Feliciano homered with one out.
Dutch umpire Winfried Berkvens was the leftfield-umpire in this game.
| 
