[youtube kD18zQ7YlWg 520]
The first round at the 2015 U18 Baseball World Cup in Osaka, Japan ended almost on Tuesday. The matchup between Canada and South Africa had to be postponed and re-scheduled for Wednesday due to rain.
Japan, USA, Australia, Korea, Cuba and Canada will advance to the Super Round Robin. Japan and Korea dominated preliminary round play with clean 5-0 records. Japan shut out the United States 3-0 and Korea edged out Cuba 4-3 in extra innings in key duels for the number one seeds.
The two Asian baseball powerhouses will be in pole position entering the Super Round Robin, which starts on Thursday. The top two teams will advance to the Gold Medal Game, which will be played at legendary Koshien Stadium.
The European participants didn’t play a significant role during the first round. The Czech Republic lost all five games, three by ten-run rule against USA, Japan and Australia. Against Mexico and Brazil they almost got to celebrate. They cut a 0-5 deficit to a single in the seventh before losing 4-8 against Mexico. They played a back and forth affair versus Brazil, which was decided 10-9 in Brazil’s favor due to a four-run seventh.
[youtube 6dJdhd5H9dY 520]
Italy crushed South Africa 12-2 behind a seven-run rally in the sixth. They lost the other four games. While the losses to Korea, Chinese Taipei and Canada had been lopsided, they pushed Cuba to the ropes. Cuba broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth after Michele Pomponi had kept them to one run in five innings.
While Italy’s Andrea Sellaroli led his team with a .438 batting average, minor leaguer Marten Gasparini went 0-for-15 with two walks in four games. Marek Chlup doubled three times for the Czech Republic. Japan’s Shoki Katsumata leads all batters with a .700 average alongside four extra base hits and 11 RBI. Tristian King (Australia) and Luis Robert (Cuba, also 11 RBI) have homered twice. Masato Morishita struck out 14 so far in eight scoreless three-hit innings.
Complete schedule, results, box scores, stats and live streams of selected games are available via www.ibaf.org.