(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
     Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei qualify for World Baseball Classic 2026
Nederlands
 TAIPEI CITY (Taiwan) -
Nicaragua and host Chinese Taipei have qualified for the sixth edition of the World Baseball Classic, that is scheduled for March 5-17 next year.
The two countries secured themselves of a spot during the first of two WBC Qualifying Tournaments, which took place February 21-25 in the Taipei Dome in Taiwanese capital Taipei City.
The second Qualifier will be held March 2-6 in Tucson, Arizona (USA).
Besides Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei, South Africa and Spain also participated in the first Qualifier.
On Day 1 of the tournament in the Taipei Dome, it wasn't at all clear that Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei would finish in first and second place.
Nicaragua won only 2-1 in ten innings against South Africa, while Chinese Taipei ended up short against Spain by losing 12-5.
Spain collected 15 hits and with a 4-1 lead, rallied for six runs in the fifth inning.
Nicaragua won in the 10th inning on a walk-off single by Ronald Rivera with no outs.
The inning began with a runner on second base (international tie-break rule).
The highlight of the game came in the seventh when Nicaraguan runner Freddy Zamora was eliminated at third base via the hidden-ball trick.
With the score at 1-1 and one out, Zamora was on second base and advanced on a flyout, while the ball was thrown to third base.
South African third baseman Anthony Phillips then walked to pitcher Justin Erasmus with the ball.
Phillips then appeared to give the ball to Erasmus, but in reality kept the ball himself and walked back to third base.
Moments later, Zamora was off the base, Phillips ran to him and tagged him before he could return.
Initially, a balk was called, but a replay review followed and it was confirmed that Zamora was tagged out.
By the way, Erasmus, who was born in South Africa, but grew up in Australia, briefly played in the Dutch big league for Twins Oosterhout in 2016 (five games, 2-2, 0.55 ERA, 20 strikeouts, 18 walks, 22 hits), before transfering to the German Bundesliga, where he plays for Heidenheim Heideköpfe.
On Day 2, Nicaragua again won only 2-1 and again needed a tenth to decide the game against Spain.
This time, Benjamin Alegria delivered an one-out, walk-off single in the tenth inning
In the evening, Chinese Taipei recorded a convincing 9-1 win against South Africa.
Po-Hsuan Wang and Cheng-Jui Sung (who homered) both had four hits.
With that, three teams were tied in second place.
On the third and final day of the round-robin (Sunday, February 23), Spain eliminated South Africa by winning 9-1.
Four pitchers gave up only two basehits.
Starter Pablo Guillen struckout eight batters in six innings.
Ruben Estrada and Jesus Ustariz homered for Spain off of Justin Erasmus.
In the evening-game, Nicaragua secured itself of a spot in the Classic via a 6-0 win against Chinese Taipei.
With that, Nicaragua remained unbeaten and finished in first place.
Spain finished in second place and Chinese Taipei in third place, meaning they faced each other in the Play-Off game on Tuesday (February 25) to decide who would become the second qualifying team.
In that game, cheered by more than 35,000 spectators, Chinese Taipei won 6-3, despite being outhit 9-7.
Four pitchers struckout eleven Spanish batters.
Nicaragua will participate for the second time in the World Baseball Classic.
The first time was in 2023.
Chinese Taipei participated in all five previous editions, reaching the Quarter Finals in 2013.
Sixteen countries already secured themselves of a spot in the World Baseball Classic, based on their results in 2023.
In August, the Pool-alignments were announced.
Canada, Cuba, Panama and Puerto Rico will play in Pool A, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico and the USA have been assigned to Pool B, Australia, Czechia, Japan and South Korea will come into action in Pool C and the Dominican Republic, Israel, the Netherlands and Venezuela will meet in Pool D.
In 2026, Pool A will be played in Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan (Puerto Rico), Pool B in Daikin Park in Houston, Texas (USA), the home of Houston Astros, Pool C in the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo (Japan) and Pool D in LoanDepot Park, the home of Miami Marlins in Miami, Florida (USA).
Houston and Miami also will be the sites of the Quarter Finals.
The Semi-Finals and Final will be played in Miami.
Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei will be assigned to one of these Pools after completion the second Qualifer next week.
(February 25)
Related Article:
 Qualifiers announced for World Baseball Classic. (November 12)
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