POSTED: Friday September 11th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BASEBALL WORLD CUP DAY TWO RESULTS AND NOTES- SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

38th Baseball World Cup - 9-27 September

 
JAPAN 9 GREAT BRITAIN 7: They had not won a World Cup game since 1938, but Great Britain almost
pulled off one of the greatest upsets in international baseball history
Thursday in Zagreb, Croatia…Japan led 9-2 entering the last half of the ninth
before England rallied for five runs, including three on a home run by Samuel
Wiley (his third hit of the game), and had the bases loaded with two out before
P Eiichi Hirai struck out pinch hitter Richard Klijn to end the game The game
almost ended two batters earlier, when 2B Timothy Collins struck, out but the
ball got away from the catcher allowing Collins to advance to first base and
the seventh run to score. Bradley Marcelino followed with a single to load the
bases again before the final out. 
 


VENEZUELA 13 USA 9 (11 inn.):  Venezuela came from 7-2 down to surprise the
defending World Cup champions before a near capacity crowd in Regensburg,
Germany. Dirimo Chavez’s Grand Slam in the eleventh inning off P Nate
Field, Venezuela’s second grand slam in three innings, capped the comeback,
which saw Venezuela tie the game at 7-7 in the ninth on former Colorado Rockies
outfielder  Rene Reyes’ Grand Slam off
pitcher Jason Childers.  The U.S. had
grabbed the early lead on a pair of Justin Smoak homers and another by Tug
Hulett and appeared to be in control until Venezuela’s ninth inning rally.  In the tenth the IBAF extra inning rule took
effect, with teams starting the inning with runners on first and second to
start the frame and both teams took advantage, first Venezuela scored a pair to
take their first lead of the game at 9-7, but the U.S. rallied to knot the
score and force the eleventh ,
setting the stage for Chavez’s dramatics.  
 


NICARAGUA 10 CROATIA 1: Nicaragua jumped out to a 9-0 lead and used a balanced 13 hit attack to
defeat homestanding Croatia in Zagreb, the Croatians first-ever game in World
Cup competition. Nicaragua’s Jimmy Morales hit a two run first inning home run,
and followed that up with another three run homer in the fifth to break the
game open. Esteban Garcia also homered for Nicaragua, who used four pitchers on
a combined five hitter.
 


CUBA 10 PUERTO RICO 0: A standing room-only crowd saw the Cubans begin the road back to
avenging their defeat in the Gold Medal game in 2007 with a 10-0 seven inning
win over Caribbean rival Puerto Rico. Cuba got all the runs they needed in the first inning, as Leonia Martin
led the game off with a double and scored on a Yuliski Gourriel single.
Gourriel later scored on an Alfredo Despaigne single, staking starter Norge
Vera to a 2-0 lead. Vera struck out the first four batters he faced, and Puerto
Rico could only manage three hits in the seven innings.    


CANADA 9 KOREA 1 Canada broke open a close game with an eight run seventh inning and went
on to defeat Korea in the opener for both teams. Adam Loewen’s second double of
the night drove in DH Tim Smith with the go-ahead run.  Milwaukee Brewers prospect Nick Bucci hurled
five three hit shutout innings to get things started for Canada, while Korea’s
Kyung-Eun Noh allowed one run over six innings before the seventh inning
meltdown.  .
 


MEXICO 8 CHINESE TAIPEI 0  Jesus Cota hit three home
runs, including a three run shot in the seventh inning, to lead Mexico to their
opening win. Rafael Diaz went six innings to get the win.
 
EXTRA INNING RULE TAKES EFFECT: 
The IBAF’s Extra Inning Rule, designed to
control the length of games, took effect for the first time in the
World Cup
Thursday in Germany.  For extra innings,
each team starts their half of the inning with runners on first and
second and
no out.  Each subsequent inning starts
the same until a winner is determined.  A
version of the rule, starting in the11th inning, was implemented
during the Beijing Olympics and was used five times, with only one game
going
an additional inning before being decided. The World Baseball Classic
adapted the rule, starting in the14 th 
inning, but it was never put into effect. Thursday both Venezuela and
the United States scored two runs in the10th inning before Venezuela’s
four run eleventh  inning decided the game.   
 


EARLY ATTENDANCE SOLID: The first two days of play have seen standing room crowds in Barcelona
for Cuba-Puerto Rico (capacity 2,500), near capacity crowds of over 5,500 in
Regensburg, Germany, a first day crowd of 2,500 in Prague and a crowd of over
1,500 in Sundyberg.  Sundyberg is
expecting near capacity for Saturday, and Regensburg is expecting a sellout for
Friday’s game with the United States. Ticket sales in the Netherlands and Italy for the second round are also
very strong, with teams at select sites still to be determined.  The warmup series between Italy and the
Netherlands in the Netherlands this week has also drawn near capacity
crowds.  Italy and the Netherlands had
first round byes in the World Cup.    
 


METS, YANKS PROSPECTS GIVE CUP A NEW YORK FLAVOR: Besides the 10 Minnesota
Twins prospects in the World Cup, the New York Mets organization is represented
by eight players, second most among Major League teams…Team USA first baseman
Ike Davis, the club’s 2008 first round pick, also played on the USA 18 and
under National Team in 2004 and Team USA’s 16 and under National Team in
2003…Davis hit .298 (128-429) with 31 doubles, 20 home runs and 71 RBI in 114
games between St. Lucie (A) of the Florida State League and Binghamton (AA) of
the Eastern League this year…infielders Shawn Bowman and Jonathan Malo will
play for Team Canada, infielder Stefan Welch will represent Australia, right handed
pitcher Montero Cruz will play for Spain, catcher Kai Gronauer will represent
Germany, lefthanded pitcher Arturo Lopez will play for Mexico and infielder Ray
Van Gurp will play for Netherlands. New York Yankees organization has four
players, including Mexico’s Arturo Lopez and Australia’s Stefan Welch, who went
4-6 in Australia’s opening win.
 


SAMARANCH
ATTENDS OPENER, DIPLOMACY REIGNS IN BARCELONA: Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch
attended Spain’s opening win over South Africa…Samaranch was instrumental in
bringing baseball to the Olympic programme  in Barcelona in 1992…baseball was denied
re-entry into the Olympics for 2016 recently, making it the largest sport in
the world not on the Olympic programme…on Thursday, Bruce Bourbeau, the
U.S. consul stationed in Barcelona was joined by Ayaz Hussain, consul general from Pakistan for
the Puerto Rico-Cuba game. Hussain´s son Syed Zohair Hussain, was also
in attendance and became a very quick fan..
 


DIAMONDS
ON THE FIELD AND IN THE GALLERY:  In
conjunction with the Baseball World Cup, an Italian exhibit entitled battiti tra diamanti e diamanti,
“heartbeats between diamonds and diamonds” has opened in Rome. The exhibit
combines baseball with paintings, music and jewels. The organizers have brought
in painters Ottorino Mancioli, Rocco Dubbini, Antonio Rovaldi, Donatella
Spaziani and Adrian Tranquilli who link the passion of baseball to the passion
of the arts.
 
WORLD CUP ON THE WEB: The World Cup website is providing live streaming of select games and
live scoring of all the games in the tournament. http://2009baseballworldcup.com/index.php?id=10
 


CUP HISTORY:  This is the
38th time the Baseball World Cup has been played…it was an annual
event from 1938 until 1953 and then was discontinued until 1961 in Costa
Rica…it went to an event every four years in 1965 and 1969 and then back to an
annual event from 1969-1976…the format then moved to every other year from
1978-1990, became a four year event in ’94 and ’98, and starting in 2001 has
been played every other year…two World Cups were also played in 1973, one
hosted and won by Cuba and the other hosted by Nicaragua and won by the United
States. 
 


RECORD SIZE OF FIELD: This year’s World Cup will have 22 countries participating, making in
the largest World Championship in the sport’s history…the 2005 Cup in the
Netherlands had 18 nations participate, while several other Cups had 16 nations
participate…over 100 athletes currently under professional contracts will be
playing in this year’s World Cup, the most in the events history.  

# # #

Keywords · 38th Baseball World Cup · IBAF · baseball

Name: Jake Fehling
Organization: IBAF
Email:
Phone: +1 919 474-8721 x225
URL: http://www.ibaf.org

Please refer all questions to the company listed above issuing the press release. SFC will not be able to assist you with any inquiries and disclaims any content in these press releases.