POSTED: Sunday September 20th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPAIN VICTORY SETS UP WILD FINISH TO ROUND 2 AT THE WORLD CUP; NOTES INCLUDE SCHEDULE CHANGES AND ROUND 3 DETAILS

News and Notes from all the games for Saturday September 19, 2009

KEY MATCHUPS ON TAP SUNDAY: Sunday will be a decisive day in
determining the rankings for the second round. One of the key games
will be Cuba vs the Netherlands. For the full schedule of games check
out 2009baseballworldcup.com/index.php

Spain 10 Great Britain 3:

Although Spain is currently still number seven, Mauro Mazzotti’s
baseball players still have a shot at the third round. This afternoon
in Rotterdam they won their second game. Three runs, among which a solo
homerun by Paco Figueroa, lead the team to a 3-10 victory on Great
Britain.

Spain scored in the first inning after Dewis Navarro, with a sacrifice
hit, struck home Daniel Figueroa. Spain built up this advantage to 1-3
via runs in the third and seventh inning.

At that time the British team responded, having struck only two base
hits in the first six innings. Three runs in a row levelled the score
and forced Spain into action.

This wasn’t a problem. In the final moments of the game there were
seven runs for the Spanish team. The man of the game was Paco Figueroa,
who struck a solo homerun in the eight inning and one inning later he
brought two team mates across the home plate with one of the four
Spanish hits in the ninth and last inning.

Australia 5 Japan 0:

Adam Blackley and Brendan Wise combined on a six hitter as Australia
shutout Japan 5-0 in Bologna.  Christopher Snelling went 2-3 with a
sacrifice fly and a ninth inning home run for Australia, while Luke
Hughes went 3-3 with an RBI. It was Australia’s first shutout of the
tournament, and was Japan’s fifth straight loss in the World Cup.

Cuba 5 South Korea 1:

With only two games remaining for each squad, tonight’s game had huge
implications for both teams.  For South Korea, a win would go a long
way in their efforts to advance to the third round.  For Cuba, a win
would ensure that it would advance, and would also keep alive its hopes
of securing the number one overall seed.

Both teams came out with a sense of purpose, each scoring a run in the
first, but it was Cuba who would gain control of the game, and the
lead, in the second.  A single by Alfredo Despaigne started off the
inning, but after two quick outs, it appeared that South Korea was
going to get out of the inning unscathed.  After a walk, Leonis Martin
doubled in two runs, and Michel Enriquez added some insurance with an
rbi single.

That was plenty of offense for the Cuban pitchers, who once again put
in a sterling performance.  Freddy Alvarez gave up one run in seven
strong innings, and Jonder Martinez shut the door on the South Koreans
in the eighth and ninth, striking out five in two innings of work.

Puerto Rico 5 Venezuela 3:

Puerto Rico assured themselves of a spot in the third round by virture
of their 5-3 win over Venezuela, who only scored in the seventh and
ninth inning. Puerto Rico took the lead early on with a run in the
third inning after a sacrifice hit by Luis Matos and built on that lead
with two runs in the fourth inning on bases loaded singles from Angel
Sanchez and Miguel Abreu.

Venezuela struck back in the seventh inning with two runs after base
hits by Dirimo Chavez and Lino Connel, but left three runners on base.
Puerto Rico scored two runs in the eighth inning when tAbreu singled,
giving him three rbi’s. Venezuela only managed one more run in the
ninth inning.  While Venezuela outhit Puerto Rico, they failed to
capitalize on opportunities and left ten runners on base.

Netherlands 8 Nicaragua 4:

The Netherlands continued their torrid pace by knocking off Nicaragua
on Saturday Night.  A four run, 8th inning surge propeled the
Netherlands into the lead, as homers were contributed by Curt smith and
Yurendell DeCaster.  Two insurance runs were added in the ninth to add
to the Netherlands lead and stymie the Nicaraguans comeback hopes.
 Dennis Neuman got the late inning win.

Chinese Taipei 12 Netherlands Antilles 3:

The game opened up with offensive fireworks from both sides, with each
team putting 3 runs on the board in the first inning, but only Chinese
Taipei was able to sustain the offensive output for the rest of the
game.  Taipei scored runs in six of the nine innings, including two in
the third, fifth, eighth and ninth to easily put the game out of reach.

Hung Yu Lin and and Han Lin both had three rbi’s for the winning team,
who picked up 19 hits as a team, including a 4-6 effort from Ming-Jen
Kuo.  After allowing three runs in the first, the Chinese Taipei
hurlers settled down and five pitchers combined to blank the Antilles
the rest of the way.

For the Antilles, Lorvin Louisa and Ardley Jansen provided almost all
of the offensive, with the two players combining for four of the team’s
eight hits, its three rbi’s, and its one home run, courtesy of Louisa.

Canada 16 Italy 7:

Italy was leading 6-3 against Canada thanks to a great start of the
offense against Canadian starter Chris Begg, who left the game without
even collecting the first out after giving up a 3 RBI triple to right
fielder Mario Chiarini.  Canada was able to bounce back immediately in
the bottom of the first on a 3 RBI double by catcher Robinson and got
to Italian lefty Camardese with three singles in a row and a grand slam
by DH Frostad.  Canada added 6 more runs in the bottom of the 8th to
win it 16-7

United States 7 Mexico 3:

Trevor Reckling pitched 5 innings allowing 2 hits and 1 earned run, to
lead he United States to a 7-3 victory over Mexico on Saturday evening
in Vicenza.  Designated Hitter Terry Tiffee went 4 for 5, with 2 RBIs
for the U.S, and improved his tournament batting average to .361.
 Tournament MVP candidate Justin Smoak went 2 for 5 at the plate as
well.  The United States takes on Italy tomorrow, and Mexico will move
on to face Australia.

NOTES

A note on the determination of ranking for the final round qualification process.

This is to clarify the tie breaking rules on Page 25 of the IBAF Norms,
part of C 11. Under the section titled Tie-Breaking System for 2009
Baseball World Cup.

For all rounds (I,II,III) tie-breaking will be determined in the following manner (In Successive order).

1. The team which won the game (s) among the ties will be given the highest position.

2. The least number of runs allowed

3.    The lowest ERA.

4.    The highest batting average

In point one it states ‘among the ties.’ This therfore also applies to
tie breaker 2, 3 and 4. It has been like this in previous World Cups
and will continue to be the same.

Schedule changes for Sunday, September 20th

The game # 79 Nicaragua vs Puerto Rico will be played in Haarlem at 19:00

The game # 81 Venezuela vs Great Britain will be played in Haarlem at 13:00

The game # 82 Korea vs Spain will be played in Amsterdam at 13:00.

2009 IBAF BASEBALL WORLD CUP

Third Round Schedule Notes for Media

To address questions regarding the unique format for Round 3 of the
2009 IBAF Baseball World Cup, the IBAF has released the following notes
to further clarify how the round is determined and how it will play out:

The third round will feature eight (8) teams:

The top four teams from Pool F (the Round 2 pool in the Netherlands)

The top four teams from Pool G (the Round 2 pool in Italy)

The bottom four teams from each pool are eliminated

When these teams move to the Round 3, they will carry over their record
from Round 2 against the other three teams from their pool that
advanced to Round 3

For example, Team A finishes Round 2 in Pool F at 5-2, which places it
as the #1 team in Pool F.  Team B, Team C, Team D, Team E, Team F, Team
G and Team H finish #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7 and #8, respectively.

Teams A-D advance to Round 3

Team A had a combined record of 1-2 against Teams B-D (its record against Teams E-H was 4-0)

Team A now moves on to Round 3 in Italy with a record of 1-2

This same example occurs in Pool G as well

Once in Round 3, each team from Pool F plays ONLY games against the four teams in Pool G (and vice-versa)

The three-game record that transferred from Round 2 to Round 3 is then
combined with the four-game record from Round 3 – it is a total of
seven games

In our example, Team A entered Round 3 with a 1-2 record

In this example, Team A goes 2-2 in Round 3

It now has a combined record of 3-4

Once all four Round 3 games have been played and the records are
tabulated, the teams are re-seeded within their pools, respectively

In our example, this is teams A-D – they are now reseeded within Pool F
based on their combined three Round 2 + four Round 3 results

Note: should there be a tie between teams when determining the
re-seeding, statistics used for a tie-break (see below) will be
comprised of (will be a total of) each team’s statistics from the games
played between the tied teams in Round 2 (in our example, Team A’s
games against Teams B-D in Round 2)

Statistics used to break the tie include (in order):

The team which won the game(s) among the tied teams will be given the highest position

The least number of runs allowed (runs, not earned runs)

The lowest ERA

The highest batting average

On Sept. 26 (after the re-seeding):

The #2 seed in Pool F plays the #2 seed in Pool G in the 3rd place game

The #3 seed in Pool F plays the #3 seed in Pool G in the 5th place game

The #4 seed in Pool F plays the #4 seed in Pool G in the 7th place game

On Sept. 27 (after the re-seeding):

The #1 seed in Pool F plays the #1 seed in Pool G in the 1st place game

Full schedules are available online at  HYPERLINK “http://www.2009baseballworldcup.com” www.2009baseballworldcup.com.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the IBAF media office at IBAFMedia@yahoo.com.

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Keywords · IBAF · Baseball World Cup

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

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