Venezuela qualifies for World Cup third round with victory over Great Britain

Venezuela 6, Great Britain 1
Haarlem, Netherlands, September 20

Great Britain ended its campaign in the Baseball World Cup with a 6-1 loss to Venezuela in the conclusion of the second round on Sunday. GB kept the game tight against the country which finished third in this spring’s MLB World Baseball Classic, conceding only two runs until the South Americans broke it open in the seventh inning with four more. The win was enough to edge Venezuela into a fourth-place finish in Group F and qualify it for the third round. It left Britain propping up the group with a 0-7 record which doesn’t accurately reflect how close the team came on a number of occasions to notching a win in the second round.

Knowing this would be their last game in the 2009 World Cup, GB Head Coach Stephan Rapaglia gave all of his position players some time in the game. Sam Wiley was retained as catcher following his takeover of that position in Saturday’s game against Spain after Chris Berset left injured. Berset returned to Sunday’s lineup as DH and gave a typically strong showing at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance. Overall, Britain put up eight hits against Venezuelan pitchers Roger Luque and Erik Arteaga. Third baseman Tim Collins also went 2-for-3 and Evan Romanchuk went 1-for-2 with a RBI.

Tom Stack-Babich, included on the roster primarily as an outfielder, was given the chance to start on the mound. After walking two and allowing a run on a wild pitch in the first inning, he was replaced by regular starter Alex Smith who only gave up one more run over the next five innings.

Venezuela secured its victory with four runs off Smith and reliever Paul Waterman in the seventh inning including a two-run double by Michael Sandoval. In the top of the ninth Romanchuk singled in Bradley Marcelino for GB’s consolation run.

Box score and play-by-play

The third round

Venezuela ended in fourth place in Group F, tied with South Korea on a 3-4 record but having beaten the Koreans in their head-to-head game. The Netherlands, Puerto Rico and Cuba finished in first, second and third respectively, all with a 6-1 records. The top four progress to the third round’s Pool 1. The USA topped Group G with a 100% record and Australia, Canada and Chinese Taipei joined it in the third round’s Pool 2, each with 5-2 records.

Teams from Pool 1 will now play each of those from Pool 2 between Sept 22-25 in Italy. Within each pool the teams carry forward results from the second round between teams which advanced to the third round. For example, the USA begins Pool 2 with a 3-0 record as it beat Australia, Canada and Chinese Taipei in the second round. It means the USA is in a great position to finish first in Pool 2 and head into the final of the Baseball World Cup on Sunday (Sept 27) against the first-placed team from Pool 1.

You can find the third round schedule and standings at the official website of the Baseball World Cup.

We’ll post a round-up of the GB baseball team’s World Cup campaign on this site soon.

The BBF, BSUK and Great Britain Baseball take no responsibility for the content of external internet sites.