Puerto Rico rises to first place in the Super Round at the U23 World Cup

(Press Release; WBSC AMERICAS BASEBALL).- The U23 World Cup opened the Super Round with a close and hard-fought 1-0 victory for Puerto Rico against Nicaragua to take the top of the standings.

Venezuela fell to world number one Japan by a score of 5 to 1, while Colombia was unable to against Chinese Taipei, which defeated them by a shutout of 10 to 0.

Puerto Rico had just three hits, but managed to make the run at the right time, one in the top of the seventh ended up being enough to confirm a stellar pitching performance by Jorhan Laboy.

Laboy pitched 6.1 innings in which he allowed three hits, with a walk and eight strikeouts, while Luis Rivera completed the game to earn the save in 0.2 innings in which he struck out one.

Venezuela could not beat Japan falling 5 to 1, Brayan Medina was defeated in 2.2 innings in which he allowed three hits, two earned runs, walking four and striking out five opponents.

For its part, Colombia failed in the Placement Round when they fell 10 to 0 against Chinese Taipei, despite seven hits, they could not bring runs to the plate.

Part of the reason was because no Colombian player could get more than one hit, seven different players got hits, but they couldn't make it count on the scoreboard.

The Super Round will continue with Nicaragua playing at home against Japan, Puerto Rico will host Korea and Venezuela will host China. In the Placement Round Colombia will be a visitor against the Netherlands.

(Media Department; Guillermo Yáber Llanos)