2007 Baseball World Cup: Quarter Finalists appeared last 2 days with some disputes

November 15, 2007

Before the Quarter Final of 2007 Baseball World Cup, there had some conflicts and disputes at last 2 days' group qualification.

Netherlands ended Cuba's winning-streak legend
Formerly, Netherlands wasn't afraid of Cuba's strength because they ever won Cuba with 4-2 at 2000 Sydney Olympics, and competed with Cuba to a 11-innings' extra match, though they finally lost with Cuba's winning hit.

Before the 8th inning of this match, a pitching competition tied this game with 1-1. But in the bottom of 8th inning, Sharnol Adriana hit a key hit with 1 RBI when Cuba's relief pitcher Jonder Martinez was in a unsteady condition. With this key RBI, Netherlands finally ended Cuba's legend by winning this game with 2-1.

A simple game faded with some political bullies' entrances in Taichung
The host team (Chinese Taipei) battled USA in Taichung with a fantastic batting game, but in the side of this game, some councilors from Taichung City and supporters from councilors bully entered the stadium with illegal privileges. After this scandal spread out to Taichung City Government, Jason Hu, the Mayor of Taichung, angered on this scandal and ordered polices and organizations from 2007 BWC investigating this scandal with justice.

Mexico replaced Panama's qualification due to problems of Panama's insurance premium
According to IBAF and MLB, if one or more MLB players participate international games like BWC or Intercontinental Cup, affiliated teams with those (MLB) players should pay the insurance premium to complete the registration before the start of every game. But Panama Team was confiscated the winning to Spain because they (Panama) didn't pay the premium at a match to Spain. IBAF finally judged Spain won Panama with 9A-0 by this violation. Comparison to the fixtures and statistics, Panama was eliminated and Mexico Team replaced Panama's qualification at Group A.

Group A

 * South Africa 2-4 USA
 * Japan 10A-0 Italy
 * Spain 1-19A Mexico
 * Chinese Taipei 10-0 Panama

Group B

 * Cuba 11A-1 Thailand
 * Germany 2-4 Australia
 * Venezuela 3-6 Canada
 * Netherlands 5-1 South Korea

Group A

 * Spain 3-4 Japan
 * Italy 2-11 Mexico
 * South Africa 3-13A Panama
 * USA 10-7 Chinese Taipei

Group B

 * South Korea 8-1 Germany
 * Australia 7-6 Canada
 * Thailand 3-17A Venezuela

Final Standings of Group Matches
PS:
 * 1) Qualified Team with Bold Texts.
 * 2) Due to the problem of insurance premium, Panama was confiscated the winning to Spain.
 * 3) Canada and South Korea both won 4 games and lost 3 games, but Korea finally qualified because a winning game from Canada with 5-0.

Tomorrow's Fixtures for Quarter Final

 * Japan (A3) vs Australia (B2)
 * Mexico (A4) vs Cuba (B1)
 * Netherlands (B3) vs Chinese Taipei (A2)
 * South Korea (B4) vs USA (A1)