Schedule revealed for WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier to Tokyo Olympics

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today revealed the schedule of the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The 16-game event in Florida will open with the Group Stage on 31 May, with the decisive Super Round running from 4-5 June.

The competing participants will be split into two groups to start the qualifier:

• Group A: No. 2 USA, No. 10 Dominican Republic, No. 11 Puerto Rico and No. 15 Nicaragua.
• Group B: No. 7 Cuba, No. 8 Venezuela, No. 13 Canada and No. 14 Colombia.

Group play is scheduled from 31 May to 2 June. The game schedule is as follows (all times local):

Monday, 31 May - St. Lucie County

• 1 pm Puerto Rico vs Dominican Republic
• 7 pm USA vs Nicaragua

Monday, 31 May - West Palm Beach

• 1 pm Venezuela vs Cuba
• 7 pm Colombia vs Canada

Tuesday, 1 June - St. Lucie County

• 1 pm Colombia vs Venezuela
• 7 pm Canada vs Cuba

Tuesday, 1 June - West Palm Beach

• 1 pm Nicaragua vs Puerto Rico
• 7 pm Dominican Republic vs USA

Wednesday, 2 June - St. Lucie County

• 1 pm Nicaragua vs Dominican Republic
• 7 pm Puerto Rico vs USA

Wednesday, 2 June - West Palm Beach

• 1 pm Canada vs Venezuela
• 7 pm Cuba vs Colombia

"We have waited over a year for this Qualifier, it’s time to get back to international baseball," said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. "I am looking forward to seeing fans back in the stands and the national teams playing to be a part of history.

"Now with this schedule announced it is a beautiful feeling to return to competition and to see teams competing on the field again after this forced pause due to this terrible pandemic which is still impacting various regions around the world.

"Next month the eyes of all baseball and Olympic fans from all over the world will be watching this event."

After group play concludes, the top two finishers from each group will advance to the Super Round, on 4-5 June, where they will each play two games. Head-to-head contests among these teams from the opening round will carry over into the Super Round standings.

The team with the best Super Round record will be declared the winner and become the fifth National Team to advance to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic baseball tournament, joining world No. 1 Japan, No. 3 Korea, No. 5 Mexico and No. 18 Israel.

The runner-up and the third-place team in the Americas Qualifier will play in the Final Qualifier, scheduled for 16 to 20 June in Taichung and Douliou City, Taiwan.