It was a good day for the European teams at the World Cup of Baseball in Taipei. Italy managed the biggest upset of the tournament so far, when they blitzed the United States 6-2. They are showing a much-improved performance as at the European championship in Barcelona in September. Spain got their first victory against South Africa at about the same time as Italy. In the evening the Dutch team showed Germany (15-5), that they are still not on one level.
The Australian games are the most interesting ones of the event. They are now 2-1 in matches decided by walk-off-hits. We doubt their result against Thailand tomorrow is showing any dramatic hits.
In pool A Italy meets with Panama. A win would put the squadra azzura in position to advance to the quarterfinals. The USA tries to recover against Japan. Group B play contains the duel between the undefeated teams of Cuba and Korea. The Netherlands tries to surprise Venezuela for a third win.
Schedule for Saturday
(all listed times are local)
Group A
12:00 Spain (1-2) – Chinese Taipei (2-0)
12:00 Mexico (0-3) – South Africa (0-3)
18:00 Italy (2-0) – Panama (2-1)
18:00 USA (2-1) – Japan (2-1)
Group B
12:00 Venezuela (1-2) – Netherlands (2-1)
12:00 Germany (0-3) – Canada (1-2)
18:00 Cuba(3-0) – Korea (3-0)
18:00 Thailand (0-3) – Australia (2-1)