- Super Round: World Champions Argentina win game between the two undefeated teams, beating Canada 5-4. Australia and USA hit six home runs in a 12-9 Super Round thriller with the lead changing hands five times. Cuba hits four in the bottom of the sixth to beat Venezuela 4-1.
- Super Round Standings: Argentina (4-0), Canada (3-1), Australia (3-1); USA (1-3), Cuba (1-3), Venezuela (0-4)
- Top four teams after Saturday qualify for the medal games on Sunday
- Placement Round: Czech Republic beat South Africa 10-3, Philippines wins first game of tournament beating Denmark 8-0, Japan top Placement Round after beating New Zealand 7-4.
- Placement Round Standings: Japan (4-0); New Zealand (3-1), Czech Republic (3-1), South Africa (1-3); Philippines (1-3), Denmark (0-4)
- Super Round Day 1 - As It Happened
- Tournament Website
- Watch Live on GameTime.Sport
Day 7 Results
South Africa v Czech Republic 3-10 (Placement Round) Box Score and Photos
USA 9-12 Australia (Super Round) Box Score and Photos
Venezuela 1-4 Cuba (Super Round) Box Score and Photos
Canada 4-5 Argentina (Super Round) Box Score and Photos
Philippines 8-0 Denmark (Placement Round) Box Score and Photos
Japan 7-4 New Zealand (Placement Round) Box Score and Photos
Defending champions Argentina inflicted the first loss on four-time champions Canada while Australia beat USA in a slugfest as the first three teams remain in the title hunt with one round remaining in the Super Round of WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup in Auckland, New Zealand.
In the Super Round on Friday, Australia outlasted USA in a remarkable 21-run game, winning 12-9, while Cuba battled through to beat Venezuela 4-1. The remaining clash saw Argentina edge the previously unbeaten Canada 5-4. It leaves the 2019 winners Argentina as the only unbeaten team on four wins, while Canada and Australia have three wins and one loss.
The two teams for Sunday’s World Championship Final will come from this trio with Argentina taking on Australia, while Canada meets Cuba on the last day of the Super Round on Saturday.
In the Placement Round, Japan leads with a 4-0 record after beating New Zealand 7-4, followed by the Czech Republic (3-1) and South Africa (1-3), the Philippines (1-3) and Denmark (0-4).
New Zealand v Japan
Japan started well with Tei Hamamoto scoring in the first inning before Reilly Makea homered over left field to tie the game at 1-1 after two innings.
A triple from Yusuke Morita scored three for Japan to make it 4-1 before Morita scored himself to give Japan a 5-1 lead at the top of the third.
Joel Evans led off the bottom of the third with his first home run of the tournament to make it 5-2. Pita Rona repeated the feat in the bottom of the fourth before Tane Mumu also scored to close at 5-4.
A Hikaru Matsuda home run in the top of the fifth scored Tei Hamamoto and gave Japan a defendable lead, which they duly did to win the game and lead the Placement Round standings.
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Philippines v Denmark
The game between the two winless teams was expected to favour Denmark, ranked 10th in the world, against world No. 21 the Philippines, but it was the Asian vice-champions who came out of their corner on fire.
Mark Janzen, Michael Pagkaliwagan both scored before Denmark Bathan homered to score Jerome Bacarisas before Justine Rosales also scored to knock the stuffing out of Denmark.
The Philippines added runs in the third, fourth and fifth including a Melvin de Castro homer in the fourth sealed the win.
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Canada v Argentina
The top of the table clash between world champions Argentina and four-time winners Canada promises to be a classic. The two played twice earlier this year at the Americas qualifier for the WBSC Men's Softball World Cup. Canada won the pool game 3-1 before Argentina took the honours in the final 4-1. Argentina also won this clash 7-0 when they played in the semifinals of the WBSC Men's Softball World Cup 2019.
There was a poll on the WBSC twitter account before the game which said 61% thought Canada would win the game. On Instagram, 71% thought Argentina would win.
Intriguing, tight tussle early on, hitless for the first two innings, with Bryan Avery pulling off a run-saving catch in the deep right field off the bat of Francisco Lombardo to keep it that way.
An Alan Peker double to right field broke the deadlock in the bottom of the third, scoring Gian Scialacomo for Argentina to lead 1-0 before scoring himself. Canada replaced Ty Sebastian on the mound for Zach Pierce, seemingly keeping their cards to their chest, potentially saving their best pitchers for later in the tournament. Manuel Godoy seemed to like the change, hitting Pierce out of the park to score Ladislao Malarczuk and for Argentina to lead 4-0.
In the fourth, Roman Godoy started coming under pressure as Canada's offensive lineup then got into action. Brad Ezekiel hit long over centre field to pull one back at 4-1 before Bryan Abrey did the same, roughly 15° further to the right.
While Canada were running the pitching changes, Argentina did they same, bringing on their No. 1 Huemul Mata in the top of the fifth but Abrey, turning into a star of the game singled up the middle to score Shane Boland and Mathieu Roy to tie up the ball game at 4-4.
Argentina struck back right away with Migliavacca scoring on a Manuel Godoy sacrifice fly to deep centre field to lead 5-4, a lead they kept until the end of the game to claim an important win, which puts them in prime position to claim a spot in the final when they play Argentina on Saturday.
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Venezuela v Cuba
A battle between two of South America's super powers who have entertained the entire tournament. And more of the same expected, especially considering that Cuba, ranked 12th in the world, beat world No. 9 Venezuela 5-4 in this year's qualifier for the WBSC Men's Softball World Cup in 10 innings.
Alain Roman, who has pitched the most number of innings in the tournament, continues as the starter for Cuba but Venezuela took the lead in the fourth inning when Edinson Marrero singled up the middle to score Englebert Herrera.
Cuba left it late but they responded impressively, scoring four runs in the sixth. Yuri Rodriquez's single to right field scoring Reynaldo Lamote before Anibal Vaillant's triple along the floor to right centre field scored Luis Dominguez, Rodriquez and Yurisamdre Ramos.
With one inning left, it was Venezuela three up, three down with Roman still pitching at the end.
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USA v Australia
Australia won this clash 1-0 in the 2019 Men's Softball World Cup Opening Round. Now all is on the line for two sides which need to win to stay in contention for Sunday's final and what a thriller it was.
Young superstar Jack Besgrove started on the mound for Australia but Matt Palazzo got the USA to the best of starts, hitting his first home run and seventh hit of the tournament to give USA a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Nic Mullins and Blaine Milheim also scoring.
This game started like a score fest. Scott Patterson first up to bat against Jon Gwizdala tripled to right centre before Callum Beashel's ground out scored Patterson the next play. But that's all Australia could muster and the world No. 4 closed the inning 3-1 behind.
Blaine Milheim doubled down the left field line to score Tyler Johnson and Yusef Davis to stretch USA's lead to 5-1 in the top of the second.
But Patterson showed his liking to Gwizdala again in the bottom of the second, hitting his first homer of the tournament back of Gwizdala's head to score Julian Jemmott and Brendon O'Byrne and all of a sudden it's a one run ball game again at 5-4. That was Gwizdala's last act in the game, replaced by Javier Caballero.
O'Byrne then pulled off a stunning catch at second base diving to his right to deny Zach Shaw in the top of the third. It certainly geed up his team mates. Besgrove striking out next batter Johnson to close the innings.
Nick Shailes then hit the next pitch over centre field for his second homer of the tournament. Tied ball game at 5-5. Marshall Kronk flied out to centre field but it wasn't long before another homer and Australia had the lead. Josh McGovern fired a bomb over left field, his first of the tournament to put Australia up 5-4.
USA then retook the lead in the fifth after Jonathan Lynch hit over a back-peddling Jermmott at shortstop, who dived but ball was out of reach. Dedicated runner Codi Pannebecker made it home but Lynch also scored after a wild throw from left field by Hayden Matthews allowed him to run home from second.
Another pitching change at the bottom of the fifth saw Bradley Fitzpatrick replace Caballero. Fitzpatrick helped Australia win the Men's Junior World Championship in 2018. Fitzpatrick claimed two outs but James Todhunter connected and had just enough legs to pass over the out strectced glove of Yusef Davis in right field to score Shailes and Matthew Harrow and put Australia bag in the lead 9-7.
Besgrove was taken off with USA two down in the sixth with veteran Adam Folkard on and Blaine Milheim took to him immediately, tying the game 9-9 with a homer of right field to score Nic Mullins.
The game was blown open in the bottom of the sixth when Marshall Kronk singled to right field to bring home Scott Patterson before Shailes scored after Josh McGovern reached first after Matt Palazzo dropped the throw from Zach Shaw. Mathews single up the middle also scored McGovern to give Australia a 12-9 lead, a lead they held onto once Kronk, on for Folkard, pitched Australia home.
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Czech Republic v South Africa
The Czech Republic kept its chances of finishing on top of the Placement Round alive with a comprehensive 10-3 win over South Africa.
A Marek Maly homer to left centre field scored Tomas Klein and the world No. 5 took a first innings lead of 2-0.
But South Africa, ranked 11th in the world, responded immediately with Mogau Thupudi, Alistair Veale and Tyrone Milne scoring in their second turn at bat to lead 3-2.
But the see-saw contest continued with Czech Republic scoring three more in the bottom of the second - Lukas Kubat, Marek Volf, Vojtech Forman all getting home for Czech Republic to lead 5-3. Mlay scored again in the third and the fifth before George Harris got home on a wild pitch and Vojtech Forman finished the game with a homer to deep centre field scoring Volf at the same time.
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Another great days play on Thursday which saw Canada and Argentina keep their unbeaten records in the tournament. Check out how it all happened here.
Day 6 Results
Denmark 2-7 Czech Republic (Placement Round) Box Score and Photos
USA 3-4 Canada (Super Round) Box Score and Play by Play
Philippines 3-8 Japan (Placement Round) Box Score and Photos
Cuba 0-3 Australia (Super Round) Box Score and Photos
Venezuela 3-6 Argentina (Super Round) Box Score and Photos
South Africa 0-7 New Zealand (Placement Round) Box Score and Photos
