Venezuela beat Germany to stay in Super Round race

Venezuela beat Germany, 7-3, to improve their record to 2-2 in Group A in the IV WBSC Baseball World Cup on Monday.

The reigning world champions outhit their opponents 13-4, but never succeeded in breaking the score open, similar to their encounter with Colombia on Sunday.

Venezuela's starter José Conopoima struggled with control issues on the mound and did not make it through the first inning after allowing two walks.

However, Venezuela still managed to get the lead in the bottom of the first with two runs on three hits, including doubles by Michael Chirinos and Amador Arias against Nicolas Goebert.

Germany responded and scored on back-to-back hits by Alexander Schmidt and Yannic Walther, who got RBI double against reliever Oscar Abreu in the top of the second.

Venezuela got to score against Anton De Angelis, the third German pitcher, with four runs on five hits in the bottom of the third that was key to their victory.

Abreu went 2-2 innings for the win and Carlos Valero was perfect and earned a five-out save.

The path to the Super Round gets tougher each day, as Venezuela face World No. 2 Chinese Taipei on Tueday at 19.00 local time, while Germany will close their opening round stint against Colombia at 10.00.