WBSC Baseball5 World Cup - Day Three: Historic win for Lithuania against Japan highlights morning session

The morning session of day three at the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup continued to provide plenty of drama and entertainment on Wednesday with Lithuania's win against the baseball / softball powerhouse Japan highlighting the six Opening Round games at Mexico City's El Zócalo. France, Cuba, Venezuela, Chinese Taipei and Mexico also registered wins.

The morning started with a good win from the very competitive French national team. The European champions defeated Korea winning two consecutive matches 8-2 and 5-3 to register their first win of the tournament and keep their Super Round hopes alive.

Cuba, the principal candidate for the World Championship title, enjoyed a pleasant win against Hong Kong. They won two matches in a row, the first one 12-3 and the second 10-0 in a game ended by the run-ahead rule.

The highlight of the day was Lithuania’s win against the powerhouse Japan in Group A. In a tight contest on court No. 2, the European vice-champions proved too good for Japan winning 3-2, 4-0 to claim their first win of the tournament after two previous defeats. Japan now sit in second place in the group with two wins and a defeat.

The Asian champion, Chinese Taipei, proved their candidacy for the World Championship Title is pretty legit after defeating the Day 1 surprise team and Group B leader Tunisia 5-1, 6-5. The result leaves both sides with a 2-1 win-loss record.

At the end of the morning session, Group B leaders Venezuela won a pretty tight contest against Kenya. The Caribbean team took the first match 2-0 before Kenya claimed the second 5-3 after an extra innings. Venezuela's defence came to the fore in the third match, taking it 5-0 to move to three wins from three games.

The last game on centre court saw Mexico and South Africa play out a thriller. Mexico won the first match 1-0 then lost the second 4-1 before claiming the win in a walk-off in the third match 3-2. Mexico moved to third in Group A behind Cuba and Japan with two wins from three games and now face the exciting prospect of playing the undefeated group leaders Cuba in the last game of the day.