U21 World Cup: Results of day five
The fifth day of the U21 World Cup baseball brought some more upsets.
First of all for me and the many Dutch fans: The Dutch team lost again in the final inning. After trailing most of the game they tied it at three in the seventh. Eventually Venezuela scored three runs in the ninth for the 6-3 win.
The Czech Republic beat Mexico 12-9 . In this slugfest without homeruns, no pitcher lasted longer than 3.1 innings. Ivan Aubrecht was the best hitter for the Czechs, going 3 for 4 with a triple and two runs batted in.
In a match between two unbeaten teams, Japan made a statement by beating Nicaragua 14-1 in seven innings. Yuya Yokoyama earned his second victory of the tournament by pitching five full innings. Yokoyama struck out eight, walked two and allowed one run on two hits.
New Zealand was close to another upset. They scored the opening run in the second inning and kept that one run lead until the top of the ninth. James Boyce pitched a one hit gem for the Kiwis and lasted eight full innings but after 110 pitches he was pulled by his manager. From that moment on Korea took advantage and scored four runs for the 4-1 win.
The last upset may be the fact that Italy may have been eliminated. The Azzurri fell 6-0 to Taiwan. But due to the Czech win, both teams finished with the same amount of wins and losses. Because the Czechs beat the Italians yesterday, it may very well be that they will advance to the championship round. The problem is that I have seen the standings change a couple of times today. Even during the New Zealand game at the time that they were in the lead. The standings said that they had won that game already. So the guy who is responsible for the stats and the standings wasn’t very sharp.
The standings as shown on the website of the IBAF:
