Israel advances to next round of World Baseball Classic

So, it turns out that Team Israel, the early darling of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, has a University of Miami connection. Jason Marquis, who started against South Korea and the Netherlands, is a 15-year Major League Baseball veteran; Corey Baker, who started against Chinese Taipei, is in the Cardinals’ system; reliever Josh Zeid, who got the win against Korea and the save against the Dutch, has almost 700 innings of professional ball to his name.

With Israel, Japan and Netherlands all heading to Tokyo, they will be joined by the victor of tonight’s AUS/CUB battle. Here is a recap of the day’s WBC action. Netherlands has now scored 11 runs in its first two games and is looking more and more like the dark horse contender thanks to a deep lineup that can produce offense from top to bottom.

Jurickson Profar had the best game for Netherlands going 3-for-3 with two doubles. The umpiring crew ruled that time had been given before the pitch, negating the out. Dutch batter Didi Gregorius eventually lined a double off the Taiwanese pitcher to make it a 5-5 game. He worked around a mini jam in the bottom ninth against Chinese Taipei, and after South Korea scored three runs in the top of the 10th, the right-hander slammed the door shut with a clean 10th inning.

South Korea ultimately sent 11 hitters to the plate in a five-run second inning, widening the gap to 6-0 until veteran hurler Pan Wei-lun was called up to stop the bleeding.

Japan then finally made it onto the scoreboard with a single before Sho Nakata’s seventh-inning solo home run drove Japan to victory. They hit.216 with just two extra base hits against Korea, but reached base at a.370 clip in that game, creating enough opportunities that they were ultimately able to get that second run across. Eastern, and are a lock to advance to the second round.

South Korea won the bronze medal at the 2006 WBC and silver in 2009, and was one of the pre-tournament favorites to win a medal again.

It helps that the roster is simply chockfull of players with plenty of either MLB or minor league experience.

China, a heavy underdog thanks to the country’s nascent baseball program, held on for as long as they could. Choi went just 2-for-22 in seven practice games before the WBC, and was benched for the first game. Over on the Cuban side, Yoelkis Cespedes, the brother of Yoenis Cespedes, notched three hits, including a double.

WHAT’S NEXT? There are three games coming up, one on Tuesday night and two on Wednesday morning. After all, Vegas Insider has them at 200-1 odds to win it all. Lipetz did not appear in either of Israel’s victories thus far in Round 1.

Pool A and Pool C in South Korea and Japan, respectively, are already well underway. On Friday and Saturday, the United States will be up against Colombia and the Dominican Republic respectively.