2nd Round starts with Defending Champion on Tuesday
USA beats Panama on Monday – Schedule announced
Panama City, Panama. The first round of the 2011 IBAF Baseball World Cup ended on Monday with a pair of make-up games for Saturday’s rainouts. While the 15-0 shutout by Chinese Taipei over Greece in Aguadulce in the morning hadn’t much meaning the second game did. USA had to win against Panama in Panama City or Puerto Rico would advance to the second round. The defending champion delivered, as Andy van Hekken threw eight five-hit innings in a 5-0 victory. Brett Jackson and Tommy Mendonca hit homeruns.
With this match played all decisions were made. Cuba, Venezuela, Korea and Australia already had clinched their advancing spots from Group 1. In Group 2 USA joined Canada, Netherlands and Panama. It was a thrilling first phase of the tournament, which saw only record title holder Cuba staying undefeated through seven games. Except the drama surrounding the United States and Puerto Rico, baseball powerhouses Dominican Republic, Japan and Chinese Taipei, as well as European Champion Italy, Nicaragua, Greece and Germany got eliminated.
The second round will again feature a round robin format and be played from Tuesday to Friday. All four stadiums of the first round will be used. The standings of this phase will be determined based on the results between all eight advancing teams, including the first round results. So as an example Canada will start the second round with a 2-1 record, having defeated the Netherlands and the USA, but lost to Panama. Based on these seven results for each team, the classification games and the finals will be played on Saturday.
The highlight of the first day on Tuesday will be the rematch of the 2009 and 2007 Baseball World Cup finals between Cuba and USA in the evening in Santiago. Earlier on the day at the same stadium Canada will try to hold down the surging Australian team. In Chitre the Netherlands take on Korea in the afternoon and host Panama squares off with Venezuela.
Schedule 2nd Round for 2011 IBAF Baseball World Cup
Tuesday, October 11
14h00 Canada – Australia (Santiago)
14h00 Netherlands – Korea (Chitre)
19h30 Venezuela – Panama (Chitre)
19h30 Cuba – USA (Santiago)
Wednesday, October 12
14h00 Netherlands – Australia (Santiago)
14h00 Venezuela – USA (Chitre)
19h30 Cuba – Panama (Santiago)
19h30 Canada – Korea (Chitre)
Thursday, October 13
14h00 USA – Australia (Aguadulce)*
15h00 Canada – Venezuela (Panama City)
19h30 Korea – Panama (Panama City)*
19h30 Cuba – Netherlands (Aguadulce)
Friday, October 14
14h00 Canada – Cuba (Panama City)*
14h00 Netherlands – Venezuela (Aguadulce)*
19h30 Korea – USA (Aguadulce)
19h30 Panama – Australia (Panama City)
*home field advantage will be determined due to coin flip
Schedule Classification Games
Saturday, October 15
11h00 Game for 7th Place (Aguadulce)
11h00 Game for 5th Place (Santiago)
11h00 Game for 3rd Place (Panama City)
17h00 Championship Game (Panama City)
Standings 2nd Round
Cuba 3-0
Canada 2-1
Netherlands 2-1
Australia 1-2
Korea 1-2
Panama 1-2
Venezuela 1-2
USA 1-2
(tied teams are sorted in alphabetical order)
(From IBAF Website)
