Venezuela sin posibilidades de revalidar el título // Venezuela has no chance of retaining its title [ESP/ENG]
The current U23 baseball world champion had no chance of advancing to the Super Round in its last match in the first phase of the tournament, as Colombia defeated Germany (0-7), so it will have to settle for playing in the consolation round.
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Despite already knowing that they would not be able to advance, Venezuela went all out against Chinese Taipei, however, they could not avoid losing by the minimum (3-4) against the locals.
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Lineups // Lineups
Manager Carlos García did not hold anything back and went into this game with his star star starter, Wikelman Ramírez, who allowed only one run in two complete episodes.
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Desarrollo // Development
Chinese Taipei managed to score the first run in the bottom of the first inning, when with a man on third I-Wei Li connects a hit to right and brings the runner to the rubber.
However, Venezuela did not take long to respond, in the second inning they evened the actions with a line through third by Cesar Izturis that ended up in the left fielder's glove and brought the runner from the middle to the plate, while in the third with a solo home run by Jesus Chirinos they went up 2-1.
Although everything seemed to be under control by relievers Anthony Escobar and Michele Vassalotti, in the sixth, the Asians came back in the game with Aldry Acosta's delivery. The tying run came thanks to a ground ball that could not be controlled by the shortstop, while the tying run came with a strong line drive to center field, which the outfielder could not do much about the speed of the runner who came like a bullet to home plate.
Venezuela tied the game in the last episode, with the second home run of the night by Jesús Chirinos, to force extra innings. But again they did not know how to take advantage of the runners on base that are placed by rule and the rival did not forgive, after a ball the bases were filled and the next batter connected an unstoppable through the middle of the field to leave the Creoles in the field.
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Breve análisis // Brief analysis
I take my hat off to some guys who despite knowing that they had no chance of advancing came out with all the attitude in the world to beat Chinese Taipei and take away their unbeaten record, especially the great level demonstrated by Wikelman Ramirez and Jesus Chirinos, undoubtedly the best both in pitching and batting.
Although the tournament is not over for Venezuela, since it must play the consolation round, we must begin to analyze the mistakes from now on in order not to make them in future editions.
It was a strong group where we had to face Japan number 1 in the ranking and Chinese Taipei locals and favorites along with South Korea to win the trophy this year, which does alarm the Venezuelan fans a little is the ground that is being lost with our neighbor, Colombia, in these competitions.
Up to this point I will give coverage to this competition to focus on other local and national team tournaments that are about to start, for me it was a pleasure to bring you the incidents of the national team in the group stage of the Baseball World Cup U23 2022. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and I invite you to follow me if you want to learn a little more about this wonderful sport called baseball.