Seoul (Korea) – Venezuela defeated the Netherlands 8-2 on the third day of competition at the 18U baseball World Championship in the Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, setting its record to 2 wins and 1 loss, tied with team USA and running up Korea’s perfect path. The Europeans still have no wins.

Venezuela took the lead in the third, when Yepez, hit by Timmermans’ third pitch and reached second in a wild pitch went home on a single by Zabaleta.

In the fourth, Lucena was walked and got to third out on a single by Garcia, went to second on Engelhardt’s throw to third and Colmenares batted in Lucena with a grounder to Verkerk and Gonzalez did the same, allowing Garcia to score the third run.

Alvarado doubled to open the fifth frame and Lino batted him in with a single to right field.

The Netherlands’ reaction came in the top of the sixth. True reached first with a walk and Philippi advanced him to second with a single, ready to score on Van Amstel’s single. Engelhardt grounded to Lucena who assisted to second to make Van Amstel the second out, while Philippi stepped on home plate for the second run.

Loos singled to the left and Ververk was walked by Alexis Rivero, whose job found here an end (3 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 S in 5.2). Jesus Solano took the mound for Venezuela on a bases loaded situation, giving up a walk to Clarijs to curt the deficit to 3-5. The small crowd of Dutch fans turned up the volume, but Schaareman struck out to end the Orange offense.

The South-Americans returned the favour: Garcia doubled to center and Colmenares followed with a single. Zorrilla drove in a run with a single, leading to Timmermans’ replacement with Floris Timmer, who had a ‘cold’ impact on the game. A wild pitch put runners on second and third, a single by Yepez helped both scoring.

A walk to Lucena and a triple by Garcia helped Venezuela to produce an eighth run and 8-3 was also the final score of the game that sent Venezuela to a 2-1 record and left Netherlands with no wins yet in the tournament.