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TAINAN, Taiwan – The 12U National Team will meet Venezuela in the gold medal game of the VI World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup on Sunday at Asia-Pacific Main Stadium in Tainan, Taiwan. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m. local/6:00 a.m. ET and will be streamed live on GameTime OTT (login required).

It will be Team USA’s fourth appearance in the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup title game, as the team looks to win its world-best fourth gold medal. The U.S. won gold in 2013, 2015, and 2017, earning the title in each of the first three years it participated in the tournament.

Team USA has won each of its first seven games at the tournament in 2022, going 4-0 in Group B pool play and 3-0 in Super Round action. The squad earned wins over the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Japan, and Korea in pool play before topping Chinese Taipei, Mexico, and Venezuela in the Super Round.

Venezuela is 6-2 overall in the tournament, suffering its second loss against the U.S. on Saturday. After coming out of Group A at 4-1 – with its only loss coming to Mexico – Venezuela went 2-1 in Super Round play. The team clinched a spot in the title game after beating Korea on Friday.

The U.S. offense has been firing on all cylinders since the tournament began on July 29, leading across the board in most offensive categories. The club has gotten strong performances from a myriad of players, including Colin Anderson, who has launched five homers and driven in 18 runs, both good for tournament highs. Anderson homered twice in the win over Korea, driving in seven of the team’s eight runs.

Anthony Frausto has been a dynamic bat at the top of Team USA’s lineup, batting .722 (13-for-18) with four homers and 13 RBIs. Frausto, who has also pitched and played first base, leads the tournament in hits and has reached base in 15 of his 20 plate appearances.

At the top of the U.S. lineup is Jonah Saken, who is posting a .526 (10-for-19) average to go along with a homer, three doubles, and six RBIs. Saken has played all over the outfield for Team USA.

As a group on offense, the stars and stripes are batting .433 (77-for-178) with 23 homers and 89 runs scored. The team has a .534 on-base percentage, a .921 OPS, and has set the Team USA record for most home runs at the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup.

On the mound, Team USA has accumulated a 4.00 ERA. Of the 41 hits the staff has allowed, only nine of them have gone for extra bases. The group has been led by Levi Kerr, who has turned in 7.2 innings of shutout baseball, allowing just two hits in his three appearances. Kerr has three wins for the U.S., giving him the team led in front of Major Ciers, who has two. Dylan Mercado has made two starts for the United States and is 1-0 with a 4.00 ERA, striking out eight batters over six innings of work.

The U.S., which owns a world-best three world titles at the U-12 level, won all three of its championships in three consecutive events (2013, 2015, 2017). Team USA went 6-2 in the tournament in 2019 but did not earn a medal for the only time in program history.

The 2022 U.S. roster comprises players who were selected from two USA Baseball identification events. Fourteen players on the roster participated in the 2022 Futures Invitational in June and four athletes played in the 2021 National Team Identification Series (NTIS) Champions Cup last summer. In addition, the roster comprises players from nine different states. California leads all states with six representatives, while Texas follows with five players.

The stars and stripes are led by skipper RJ Farrell in 2022, who returns to the post for the second consecutive season. Farrell led the U.S. to an unbeaten record in a three-game exhibition slate in 2021, outscoring opponents 55-3. The manager has a plethora of experience on 12U National Team coaching staffs, spending three seasons as an assistant coach. In that role, he helped lead Team USA to gold medals at the 2017 WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup and the 2018 COPABE U-12 Pan American Championships.

Farrell is joined on staff by pitching coach Seth Kenny and assistant coaches Troy Gerlach and Tanner Vesely. Kenny will reprise his role as pitching coach in 2022 after making his national team coaching debut a summer ago, when his pitching staff posted a 1.29 ERA and struck out 33 batters in 21 innings pitched. Gerlach assumes the role of assistant coach on the 2022 staff, bringing with him a gold medal from the 2018 WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup, where he was an assistant coach. Also serving as an assistant is four-time gold medalist Vesely for the second consecutive year. Vesely, who has been a member of six national team staffs, won the 2015 WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup as manager and has been an assistant on three other gold-medal winning squads.