By José Alejandro Rodríguez Zas
The Pan American Baseball Confederation (COPABE) and the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) they announced through its official means on the internet, the official calendar of the baseball tournament corresponding to the I Junior Pan American Games, event to be held at the main venues in Cali and Valle, in Colombia, between November 25 and December 5 to come.
Specifically, the baseball contest, which will have a Sub23 category, will be played from November 26 to December 2 at the Edgar Renteria stadium, located in the Barranquilla sub-headquarters and will feature the presence of eight teams divided into two groups.
In A, they will host Colombia (COL), Mexico (MEX), Dominican Republic (DOM) and Argentina (ARG), while B will play Cuba (CUB), Venezuela (VEN), Nicaragua (NIC) and Brazil (BRA).
A qualifying stage of all against all will be held, with three matches per team, from November 26 to 29, advancing the first two of each group to a semifinal crossed with the two classified from the other section, that is, the 1st of A will collide against the 2nd of B and the 1st of B against the 2nd of A.
The winners of these matches will fight for the gold medal, while the losers will fight for the bronze.
There will also be a consolation round between the third and fourth places of each bracket, to define the places from fifth to eighth, in direct matches 3rd vs 3rd (for 5th place) and 4th vs 4th (for 7th)
The champion of the competition will have the additional benefit of qualifying his country for the baseball championship of the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile in 2023, to which he would presumably go with his senior team.
Cuba will debut on the 26th against its counterpart from Brazil, the weakest rival in the section, and then on the 27th and 28th, respectively, against Venezuelans and Nicaraguans.
The qualifying round matches will be at the rate of three per day and will be played at 10:30 am, 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm local time (Cuba and Eastern United States), from as follows:
Day 26: NIC vs VEN, CUB vs BRA, DOM vs COL
Day 27: VEN vs CUB, ARG vs DOM, COL vs MEX
Day 28: BRA vs VEN, MEX VS ARG, CUB vs NIC
Day 29: DOM vs MEX, NIC vs BRA, ARG vs COL
The crossover phase will be with two daily matches, at 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm:
Day 30: 4th Group A vs 4th Group B, 3rd Group A vs 3rd Group B
1st day 2nd Group B vs 1st Group A, 2nd Group A vs 1st Group B
The 2nd of December is reserved for the discussion of the medals. The bronze will be at 2:30 pm and the gold at 7:30 pm.
It is worth noting that of the eight teams in the competition, six participated in the III U23 Baseball World Cup recently carried out in the state of Sonora, Mexico and four of them finished in the first four places. Venezuela was crowned world champion after beating Mexico 4-0 in the final, while Colombia came third after beating Cuba 5-3.
The Cuba team that will participate in this event, under the command of Eriel Sánchez, will be announced in the coming days.
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OFFICIAL: Cuba WILL DEBUT against Brazil in Pan American baseball tournament