SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — The round robin has finished at the X Men’s Softball Pan American Championship held in the Dominican Republic and the playoffs were set with the eight teams to compete for the five spots for Lima 2019 Pan American Games.
Venezuela ended unbeaten in Pool A and clinch first place in the standings, followed by USA, Cuba and Colombia. These three teams finished with the same record of 5-2, but the US team earned the second place by the tie-breaker criteria.
On the other hand, Canada claimed first place in Pool B with no losses, followed by Argentina, Mexico and Guatemala.
This way, the playoffs will begin on Friday with two historic rivalries between Venezuela and Argentina, and Canada versus USA. The four teams will have double lives in the playoff. In the lower part of the playoffs, Cuba will face Guatemala and Mexico will play against Colombia, in win-or-go-home games.
Two key victories for USA
USA clinched the second place in their pool, with two important wins against Cuba by 5-1 and Puerto Rico by 9-0. This way, they will face Canada in the playoff, the other North American giant.
USA defeated Cuba by 5-1, making a huge step in their goal to finish in the second spot of the Pool A. Tony Mancha threw a six-innings gem, allowing only 2 hits and 1 run, with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.
Erick Ochoa produced the first US run with a single to left field to plate Cameron Schiller. Cuba tied the game in the fourth, with an RBI single by Yasmani Rios to left field.
But in the bottom of the fourth, USA took the lead again with a RBI by John Lynch for the middle of the field. And in the last two innings, they opened the gap with a grounder by Nick Mullins and a two run bomb by Kevin Castillo.
Alain Roman was the loser for Cuba in seven innings of work, with 5 runs, 8 hits, 5 walks and 10 Ks.
After that game, USA defeated Puerto Rico by 9-0, in five innings, and this way clinched second place. The game lasted only five innings with another beauty of Mancha, who left the game hit-less after four innings of work, and fanned five of the 12 hitters he faced.
The North American team made the big difference in the third inning, sending 13 hitters to the plate to score eight runs.
Felix Liriano was the winner of the game in four innings of work with 1 allowed run, 2 hits, 2 walks and 6 strikeouts. The loser for Aruba was Jair Thompson, who pitched 3.2 innings and received 11 runs and 8 hits, with 8 walks.
Finally, in the last game of the day, the host team defeated Puerto Rico by 5-3 and ended in fifth place in Pool A. They must wait for the game between Mexico and Panama (postponed due to rain) to know if they qualify to Barranquilla 2018 (with a win by Mexico) or need to play a tie-breaker against Panama (if Panama wins).
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