Cuba, the only unbeaten team. The winning teams get two direct entries into the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, six to the 2007 World Championship in Taipei and seven to the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro that year.
THE Pre-Olympic Baseball Tournament of the Americas moves today into its second stage, covering eight teams from the Western Hemisphere, including Cuba as the only unbeaten team. Winners of the competition, which continues until Tuesday, September 5, get two direct entries into the baseball event of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, six to the 2007 World Championship in Taipei and seven to the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro that year.
From the first round, the competing Group A teams are Cuba (3-0), Panama (2-1), Nicaragua (1-2) and the Dominican Republic (0-3), while from Group B, the teams are United States (2-1), Mexico (2-1), Canada (1-2) and Venezuela (1-2).
From this Friday, September 1 until Tuesday, with Monday 4 being a rest day, each team will play the four classifying selections from the opposite group, and will not play against their own group again.
The first two games of this round are this afternoon (14:00 hours, local time): Canada vs. Panama in the Santiago “Changa” Mederos Stadium and the United States vs. Dominican Republic in the Nelson Fernández.
The evening programming (20:00 hours) includes Cuba vs. Venezuela at the Latinoamericano Stadium, the tournament’s main venue, which seats 55,000 spectators, and Mexico vs. Nicaragua at the Nelson Fernández, in San José de las Lajas, 30 kilometers southwest of the capital.
The calendar has the Cuba-United States game – a major attraction in any baseball tournament – at the end, but both teams could arrive at the duel with their tickets to Beijing assured.
The Cuban selection, comprised of many of the same players who won second place in the first World Classic this past March, sped through the first stage of this tournament by winning four of their five victories (against Colombia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Ecuador) the fast way – in knockouts.
The team boasts of an offense that averages .392, with 15 home runs among the regular players, supporting a pitching lineup that allowed only 1.46 clean runs for each nine innings.
Source: Granma Internacional
