Venezuela earns a spot in the World Cup and will play Cuba in semifinals

(Press Release; WBSC-AMERICAS).- The U15 World Cup qualifier knows it´s semifinalist, Venezuela bested Colombia and Dominican Republic earned it´s first victory of the tournament against Puerto Rico earlier.

In the first game of the day a classic battle between Caribbean rivals, Dominican Republic came from behind to best Puerto Rico 10-5 and hopes for the final World Cup spot of the tournament.

Puerto Rico jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, but Dominican Republic started cutting away at that lead with three runs in the sixth and six runs in the seventh including a grand slam by Ronny Collado.

The victory sets up a match for the remaining spot in the World Cup on saturday against Colombia, this teams faced each other in the opening round with a victory by the south Americans 12-8.

In the second game Venezuela reaches the World Cup by beating Colombia 11-2 in a game they had under control from the first inning, and a great pitching performance and complete game by Rafael Lasorsa.

With the end of the opening round, one semifinal will have Panama against Puerto Rico at 10am while in the other game Venezuela will face Cuba (40 minutes after the first game).

For Colombia and Dominican Republic the road to the World Cup will end on Saturday morning at 10am when they will face each other for the last remaining spot in the tournament.

The bronze medal game will be on saturday, after the Colombia and Dominican Republic game, and the final of the U15 World Cup qualifier is scheduled for sunday at 1pm.

(WBSC-AMERICAS; Direction of Media Relations)