There were no surprises in the last day of the first round in the 15UWorld Cup in Mexico. Chinese Taipei, Cuba and Venezuelaremained undefeated, while Mexico, Brazil and Nicaragua clinched second place in their groups. Hong Kong got their first win in an extra inning drama.
Mexico and a noisy crowd where too much for Italy. The hosts scored 9 times in the first inning, thanks to a shaky (3 errors) italian defense and won it 19-0.
Chinese Taipei got 21 hits and limited Lithuania to 3. They confirmed their leadership in group ‘A’ with a 20-0 in only 3 at bats.
Brazil confirmed themselves in second place in group ‘B’ with a 22-4 win against Argentina. Brazil got 20 hits, while Argentina only collected 2 and committed 7 errors.
Hong Kong celebrated their first win as they defeated (3-2) Indonesia at the end of an exciting game. A base hit by Yan Ching provided the winning run in the 8th.
Venezuela hit 3 doubles and a triple to go ahead early and finally won (10-7) against Nicaragua, thus securing first place in group ‘C’.
Aruba finished the first round with a 10-8 win against Ukraine, despite a 5 run first inning of the eastern europeans.
The top 2 teams of each group will now play in Chihuahua in the medal round (places from 1st through 6th). Teams qualified as 3rd and 4th will compete in Parral for places from 7th through 12th and the number 5 seeds will compete in Cuauhtemoc for places from 13th through 15th.
