WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Group B Day 3: China, Cuba, Netherlands book Playoff spots, two teams in contention for remaining place

World No. 11 China and Cuba, ranked 28th in the world, became the first two teams to book Playoff spots in the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Group B on Thursday at the Camp Municipal de Beisbol i Sofbol de València in Spain. European champions the Netherlands are also assured of a top four spot leaving Friday's last day of Opening Round round-robin play to see who out of Puerto Rico (world No. 4) and hosts Spain (No. 12) will claim the remaining two Playoff places.

With the top four teams participating in Saturday’s Playoffs, China claimed their third win from as many games with an impressive 8-0 win over Spain in the last game on Thursday and can't finish the Opening Round worse than second place. Cuba, similarly, who have three wins and one defeat, can't finish worse than third.

Cuba suffered their first loss of the tournament on Thursday, going down 3-1 to Puerto Rico, who have a 2-1 win-loss record alongside the Netherlands who are 2-2 but can't finish worse than fourth.

China (against South Africa and Cuba) and Puerto Rico (against Netherlands and Spain) play two games on Friday, which will determine the remaining team who advance to the Playoffs.

Day Three Results
Spain v Netherlands 2-3 Box Score/Play by Play Highlights
Cuba v Puerto Rico 1-3 Box Score/Play by Play Highlights
South Africa v Netherlands 1-11 Box Score/Play by Play Highlights
Spain v China 0-8 Box Score/Play by Play Highlights

Photos of the Day

• Five home runs hit in the tournament with Jiaxin Xie hitting the latest and longest against Spain. The other two homers today came from Dinet Oosting, who landed hers on the spectator stands' roof against Spain and Maxime Van Dalen hitting over the right field fence against South Africa.
• South Africa v the Netherlands started at 15:15 due to later finish of previous game
• Due to late finish of first game, Cuba v Puerto Rico started at 12:50
• Rain delay in first game between the Netherlands and Spain from 10:07-10:25
• Day Two Review - Cuba and China stay undefeated; top standings
• Day One Review - Wins for Cuba, China and Spain on opening day
• Great media coverage of the tournament including in major Spanish sport's paper Marca on Tuesday and Wednesday 
• Group B in Valencia, Spain sees the hosts, ranked 12th in the world, welcome No. 4 Puerto Rico, No. 10 Netherlands, No. 11 China, No. 28 Cuba and No. 38 South Africa from 18-22 July. See Preview
• Valencia ready to welcome the world
• 12 players to watch
• By the Numbers
• Photos
• Watch Live on GameTime.Sport

Spain v China

The last game of the day sees the hosts Spain, who are coming off a 3-2 loss to the Netherlands in the first game of the day, play unbeaten China who have won both their opening games against Puerto Rico on day one and the Netherlands yesterday.

China put four on the board in their first turn at bat, from four hits. Jiaxin Xie's double to right centre field scored Yue Xie and Jia Xu with Jiaxin Xie and Siyu Yan both scoring off single hits to deep left field.

Xiaoyan He added another in the second on a sacrifice fly from Jia Xu and while hometown girl managed a fly ball single to left field, Spain couldn't convert to a run and China lead 5-0 after the top of the third.

Bizarre scenes here at the Camp Municipal de Beisbol i Sofbol de València with rain falling under blue, sunny skies. just a rogue cloud to blame for the passing shower.

Jiaxin Xie hits the fifth homer of the tournament, the third today and the biggest of the event so far over the centre field stands. With Jia Xu and Min Ren also on base, China go ahead 8-0 in the bottom of the fourth.

With the run ahead rule mind, Spain had one more turn at bat to reduce the deficit to less than seven but couldn't trouble the scorers, as China maintained their unbeaten record with three wins from three.

South Africa v Netherlands

The Netherlands back up after beating Spain in the first game of the day, their first win of the tournament while South Africa are searching for their first win after losing three games so far.

Pause in play after seven pitches at 15:19 after Sterre Den Duijn from the Netherlands requires some treatment after a ball bounced up off her glove into her forehead. Doesn't look like she's going to return to play so the game resumes at 15:22 with Britt Vonk moving back from first base to her customary short stop position and Maxime van Dalen on first.

The Netherlands' first turn at bat saw them register seven runs with solid hitting and good base running. Vonk, Annemiek Jansen, Dinet Oosting, who homered to give Netherlands the lead in the morning against Spain, Laura Wissink, Jessie Van Aalst, Den Duijn and Damishah Charles all scoring.

Another injury break at 15.51 in the top of the second with Rachel Matsimela receiving treatment to her head after sliding into third and escaping the tag of Damishah. Matsimela is replaced on third by Katlego Aphane at 15:56 and with play resuming, Aphane reaches home as the Netherlands tag out Erin Peters at second base. Netherlands lead 7-1 after the top of the second, which saw Den Duijn return to the field and Vonk back to first.

Van Aalst and van der Zanden score in the bottom of the second to put the Netherlands 9-1 up before a Maxime Van Dalen home run, the fourth of the tournament and the second in two games for the Netherlands after Dinet Oosting launched a bomb against Spain in the first game of the day, scores Vonk to put the Netherlands ahead 11-1, a score which was enough to win by the run ahead rule in the top of the fourth.

Cuba v Puerto Rico

Pre-tournament favourites Puerto Rico, ranked fourth in the world, lost to China in their opening game while beating South Africa yesterday.

Cuba have been in top form beating the Netherlands, South Africa and Spain.

Star pitcher Aleshia Ocasio starting in the circle for Puerto Rico and Yilian Tornes pitching for Cuba showing how important this game is for both sides, which is a rematch of the final of the Central and Caribbean Games, won by Puerto Rico 2-0.

Puerto Rico first to score in the bottom of the second with Carsyn Gordon and Aleimalee Lopez reaching home after an innocuous hit by Janelle Martinez before Martinez scored on a stolen base after Cuba catcher Rosangela Jardines threw to second unsuccessfully trying to tag out Tatianna Roman, who stole second. Puerto Rico up 3-0.

With Puerto Rico starting to hit well against Tornes, Cuba made a tactical change in the pitcher's circle with Limonta Guevara on in the bottom of the third.

Yanisleidys Casanova, who has been on fire with the bat this tournament, hits another ground ball to centre field to score Lisaidy Samon who gets home from second and reduces the deficit to two, Puerto Rico lead 3-1 in the top of the fifth.

Bottom of the sixth, two out and one runner on first, Guevara pitches high, which hits Camille Ortiz on the helmet. She manages to stand up on her own walk back to the dugout so she looks to be ok, considering she initially sat down to recover from the hit. With three runners on later in the inning, Guevara managed to get herself out of the jam by striking out Aminah Vega. 

Spain v Netherlands

Hosts Spain take on European champions the Netherlands in the first game of the day which promises to be a cracker. Spain have been playing great softball having beaten South Africa 14-0 in their opening game before losing to Cuba in a thriller yesterday 2-1.

Both the Netherlands, who have lost two tight games to Cuba 4-3 and China 5-4, and Spain play twice today in an important day for both sides.

The Netherlands, ranked 10th in the world, beat world No. 12 Spain 7-2 during last year's European Championships but with the crowd behind the home time, expect this one to be closer.

Rain starts to fall lightly ahead of and at the start of the first game between Spain and the Netherlands, which should make playing conditions more comfortable, not considering the humidity.

As soon as we write that, the rain gets heavier and play is paused at 10:07 due to a heavy downpour with only 11 pitches thrown in the game and the score still 0-0 with two outs in the top of the first inning. It should only be a passing heavy shower but the grounds crew rushes out to cover the home plate and pitcher's circle.

The forecast is for cloudy skies until about 13:00 but we should have play up and running again very shortly. The fans are staying in their seats with this light rain now providing some sort of relief from the hot conditions.

The tarps are starting to come off the pitchers circle and home plate so we should be restarting shortly. And the umpires now returning to investigate the state of the playing surface, with an Astro turf in play we should be back underway shortly. The teams are also back on the field, warming up again.

We are back underway at 10:25 with the Netherlands' Marjolein Merkx pitching to Yaicey Sojo.

But it's at the Netherlands first turn at bat when the scoreboard gets moving and in style with Dinet Oosting giving the European champions the best start with a home run over centre field, the third of the tournament and the biggest so far, hitting the roof over the seats near the Cuba flag, which is just left of centre.

Very tight game with the Netherlands looking to extend their 1-0 lead and it was in the bottom of the sixth when a ground ball to centre field from Laura Wissink, who started the game as catcher but after being hit in the chin by a stray ball was playing offence only, provided the catalyst for the Netherlands to extend their lead to 3-0 with Oosting and Jessie van Aalst scoring on her two-run single.

All down to Spain's last turn at bat to see if they can turn things around and with two outs and the home crowd roaring them on, Yulan Denia, playing for the first time in the tournament, and Maria Caicoya manage to get home after a throw from third base Damishah Charles to first bounced and was unable to be caught Maxime van Dalen allowing Yaicey Sojo to reach first.

Score now 3-2 and the crowd's support for the home team got even louder as Sorangel Ledezma hit another ground ball to Charles and again her throw to first bounced but this time van Dalen could make the grab and put an end to Spain's impressive comeback and a terrific game, allowing the European champions to celebrate their first win of the tournament.

Pregame

The weather looks to include some cloud today however temperatures still expecting to reach 32° at 15:00 with the air temperature feeling like 37° like previous days.

More great media coverage of this exciting Pool B tournament, including with Marca who followed up article on Tuesday with another on Wednesday .

While the countdown to Group C is also underway, including the announcement that Maori TV will broadcast all the New Zealand games live.

• Where to watch
• First time that Spain, like Ireland and Italy, hosts a WBSC tournament.
• New sustainable Mizuno ball - the M170 - in play.
• Six teams participating in three groups. Top two teams from Group B “punch a ticket” to the Finals next year. Learn more about the tournament format here.
• USA and Australia advance to Finals 2024 after finishing first and second in Group A in Ireland. Great Britain finished third. Check out the Group A review.
• Group C in Castions di Strada and Buttrio, Italy sees world No. 2 and Olympic champions Japan, No. 5 Canada, No. 8 Italy, No. 26 Philippines and No. 29 New Zealand in action from 22-26 July.
• First time the new two-stage format is being used in a WBSC tournament.
• WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Full History
• XVII WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals to be played in July 2024 in Italy