TAINAN, Taiwan – After clinching a spot in the gold medal game on Friday, Team USA concludes World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup Super Round play with a matchup against Venezuela. First pitch is set for 2:30 p.m. local/2:30 a.m. ET from Asia Pacific Main-Stadium in Tainan, Taiwan.
The game will be a preview of Sunday’s gold medal game, which will also feature the United States against Venezuela.
The U.S. defeated Chinese Taipei, 8-6, on Friday night to clinch its spot in the title game. The stars and stripes rallied for six runs in their final two turns at bat to win the game, getting a grand slam from Anthony Frausto and a go-ahead single by Max Villalva. Frausto’s grand slam was his second of the tournament.
Colin Anderson homered in the win over Chinese Taipei, giving him four round trippers in his last three games. The outfielder, who leads Team USA in most offensive categories, has 11 RBIs over the three-game span.
Levi Kerr earned the win on Friday for the second straight day, as he also got the victory against Mexico on Thursday. Kerr has thrown 7.2 spotless innings in three appearances for the U.S., allowing just two hits.
Venezuela enters the contest at 6-1 on the tournament. The club only lost one game in Group A pool play, falling 7-1 to Mexico, while beating Chinese Taipei, Italy, Panama, and South Africa. Venezuela has won each of its first two Super Round games, knocking off Korea and the Dominican Republic to secure a spot in the title game.
Saturday’s matchup will be the third all-time meeting between the U.S. and Venezuela at the U-12 level. Venezuela has the upper hand throughout history, winning two of the three games the teams have played. They most recently met at the 2019 WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, where Venezuela picked up a 7-6 win over Team USA.
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.
To follow along with all the action at the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, be sure to follow @USABaseball12U on Twitter and @USABaseball on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.
