6 teams ready to battle for 3 three spots in tough Group B

The managers from Korea and Venezuela made a bold statement about their goal in the tournament: they are here to win the U-23 Baseball World Cup. However, the six skippers expressed a lot of respect about their opponents in the Group B, during the press conference held today in Monteria.

Yeon Soo Lee said: “Our goal in the tournament is to finish the Opening Round between the top three teams, advance to the Super Round, and then play the Final and win the title”.

Venezuelan Carlos Moya was even more categorical: “We’re here to make our people happy. We’ve built a very good team, we know how to play this kind of events and we’re expecting to win the world title for Venezuela, for the first time in history. I respect all the other teams, we’re the best 12 squads in the world, and here in Monteria you will witness the ‘group of death’. There are no small enemies, we respect all of them. I wish all the teams the best luck, hopefully they will join us in the podium, because we’re here to finish in first place”

Australia’s skipper, Tonny Harris, recognized it’s a very difficult task to repeat the Silver medal from Monterrey, but the confidence is still there: “We’re coming from a Silver Medal two years ago in Monterrey, against a very strong Japanese club, but our team is different now, so our expectation is to be the very best we can. We might not be always the best team, but we’re giving always the best effort on the field. That’s all I ask to my athletes. If we can do that, we won’t have any regrets, and hopefully we can advance to the Super Round, play for a medal and maybe we can finish one spot better than two years ago”.

Denio Gonzalez, from Dominican Republic, stated: “It’s a young team, looking to get better results than the last World Cup. We’re here to play baseball, all we do is to try to help our kids. We’re going to play hard everyday, we think we have a strong team”.

The manager for Puerto Rico, baseball superstar Yadier Molina, showed confidence on its team: “Our rivals are very good squads, it will be very difficult for us, we respect them a lot. But also we trust in the talent of our players. We don’t like to talk, we like to show who we are in the field; we will try to play better than our opponents, and let’s see what happens”.

Czech Republic might be the underdog of the group, but their manager Vladimír Chlup, wants to put European baseball on the map: “My expectation for the tournament is to show to the baseball world that, even in Europe, our sport is getting stronger. Our main strength is the team effort, we really build around the team chemistry”.