The World Baseball Softball Confederation today announced the official cities and venues of the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier, with the event to be staged from 31 May to 5 June in The Palm Beaches & St. Lucie County, Florida.
The WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier, hosted by USA Baseball, will see eight participating National Teams battle for one spot in the six-team Tokyo 2020 Olympic baseball tournament at Clover Park in St. Lucie County and The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach.
"The teams and the entire baseball world are all looking forward to this exciting moment to arrive on the road to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020," said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. "Now with the dates and venues locked in place, anticipation builds even higher for this important qualifier, which we hope will provide an excellent preview of the Tokyo 2020 Games and what they represent, as a symbol of hope and inspiration."
The competing participants will be split into two groups to start the qualifier:
Group A: No. 2 USA, No. 10 Dominican Republic, No. 11 Puerto Rico and No. 15 Nicaragua.
Group B: No. 8 Cuba, No. 9 Venezuela, No. 13 Canada and No. 14 Colombia.
After group play concludes, the top two finishers from each group will advance to the Super Round, where they will each play two games. Head-to-head contests among these teams from the opening round will carry over into the Super Round standings.
The team with the best Super Round record will be declared the winner and become the fifth National Team to advance to the Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament, joining world No. 1 Japan, No. 3 Korea, No. 5 Mexico and No. 18 Israel.
The second-and the third-place teams will qualify for the WBSC Baseball Final Qualifier, scheduled from 16 to 20 June in Taiwan at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium and Douliou Baseball Stadium in Douliu City.
The other participating teams are world No. 4 Chinese Taipei, No. 6 Australia, No. 9 Netherlands and No. 22 China.
The format, groups and schedule of the final qualifier will be announced in a future communication.
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