(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
         BB Americas Qualifier: Teams set for Super Round
Nederlands
  PORT ST. LUCIE / WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (USA) -
The four teams that will play in the Super Round of the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier are set.
On Wednesday (June 2), the last day of the preliminary round, the last team qualified for the final round.
The winner of the tournament qualifies for the Olympic Games in Japan.
The second and third best teams advance to the Baseball Final Qualier, which will be played later this month in Mexico.
In Pool B, Canada and Venezuela qualified on Tuesday by winning their second game.
That led to the elimination of Cuba and Colombia.
In Pool A, the USA also advanced to the Super Round on Tuesday after recording its second win.
On Wednesday, the Dominican Republic became the second team to qualify by winning against Nicaragua, which therefore was eliminated.
When Nicaragua had won, the Dominicans would have been eliminated.
Puerto Rico already was eliminated in the Pool on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Dominican Republic recorded a convincing 13-3 win in eight innings against Nicaragua in its final game of the preliminary round.
Venezuela remained unbeaten after recording a 5-0 shutout against Canada.
In the evening, Cuba won its first game of the event by winning with a big 16-3 score against Colombia.
The game between the USA and Puerto Rico in Port St. Lucie was cancelled due to an unplayable field after heavy rain.
The game is re-scheduled for Thursday.
Whatever the result of this game, the USA would end up in first place in this Pool based on its win against the Dominicans.
The USA already qualified for the Super Round on Tuesday, while Puerto Rico then was eliminated.
The Super Round begins on Friday.
The Dominican Republic then meets Venezuela, while the USA faces Canada.
The teams take the game they played against the team in their Pool in the Opening Round with them to the Super Round.
With that, the USA and Venezuela are beginning the deciding round with an 1-0 record.
In Port St. Lucie on Wednesday-afternoon, the Dominican Republic collected 15 basehits in its game against Nicaragua.
Three of them were hit by Julio Rodríguez and Jeison Guzmán.
Rodríguez homered twice and batted in three runs.
Yefri Pérez, Juan Francisco and Luis Liberato also homered.
Guzmán also batted in three Dominican runs.
The Dominican Republic, which rallied for four runs in the fifth inning, reached the 10-run difference in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Venezuela shutout Canada 5-0 in West Palm Beach.
On the first day of the tournament, Canadian pitchers threw a No-Hitter against Colombia.
But in this game, Canada was almost no-hit itself by the Venezuelan pitching, as the team recorded only one basehit.
Venezuela collected eight and scored twice in the second and fourth inning.
The fifth run was added in the seventh at bat.
Canada recorded its lone basehit with one out in the top of the first inning when Jacob Robson singled off of starter Emmanuel De Jesús.
He got two runners in scoring position in the third inning with one out, but a grounder and strikeout followed.
As De Jesús pitched only four innnings, he could not become the winning pitcher.
Oddanier Eduardo Mosqueda Hernandez, who threw the fifth and sixth inning, was credited with the win.
Venezuela scored its first two runs in the second inning on singles by Ramon Flores and Yonny Hernández.
The team added two runs in the fourth on a homerun by Carlos Pérez.
The fifth run was scored in the seventh when Juniel Querecuto also homered.
In the evening, Cuba won its final game with a big 16-3 score in seven innings against Colombia.
Cuba lost its first two games both with an one-run difference and was eliminated for the Olympics.
Today, the team led 7-0 after two innings and added a 6-run rally in the fourth against Colombia, which remained winless.
Cuba collected 18 basehits, including four by Erisbel Arruebarruena, one of them a homerun.
He also batted in four runs.
Raico Santos Almeida and Roel Santos both had three basehits.
The first hit a triple and a homerun and batted in four runs.
Yadir Orestes Mujica Diaz and Yordanis Samon both batted in three runs for Cuba.
Jeter Deion Downs Mitchell homered for Colombia.
(June 2)
Related Articles:
 WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier opens in Florida; No-Hitter Canada. (May 31)
WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier: First win Nicaragua; Cuba eliminated. (June 1)
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