Coached by Brian Farley, an American, the Dutch played a game close to perfection, with veteran right-hander Rob Cordemans shining bright on the mound and young stars Jonathan Schoop and Marickson Gregorius delivering key defensive plays.

Netherlands scored two runs in the fourth inning, following a Cuban run in the top frame. Schoop had an RBI single. Cordemans threw a gem, allowing only two hits in 7 1/3 innings, and the Dutch bullpen made it hold up. Juan Carlos Sulbaran gave up two hits but got three outs, and veteran David Bergman got the last two outs to earn the save and the gold medal. Left-hander Yulieski Gonzalez got the loss for Cuba.

In the ninth inning, it was third baseman Jonathan Schoop who caught Hector Olivera’s first pitch in his glove securing the decisive third out.

Cordemans was the Florida junior college pitcher of the year in 1997 at Indian River (Fla.) Junior College. He has pitched in the Netherlands as a pro, and the 36-year-old has pitched in the Olympics and numerous international tournaments. This was his finest moment as he struck out six hitters and yielded only one run.

In addition to the championship trophy, the Netherlands had two other awards to savour. Dutch outfielder Curt Smith who was released by the St. Louis Cardinals at the end of spring training this year, was named the most valuable player of the tournament by driving in 13 runs, tied with Fernando Seguignal, and scoring 12, second to former big leaguer Jose Macias.

Tom Stuifbergen was declared the best pitcher. Surprisingly, the All-Star team conspicuously lacked any Dutch players.

The bronze-medal game between the U.S. and Canada was rained out, with Canada earning the bronze by the tiebreaker method used. Canada had beaten the U.S. head-to-head and had a better overall record in the Cup. The United States exits the Cup without a medal after winning a gold medal in 2009 and 2007.

As a result of the defeat, the U.S. faced a must-win scenario in its final two Group 1 games if it hoped to advance to Round 2. The game featured several players on both teams now playing in Minor League Baseball.

The Dutch struck first with a Curt Smith three-run homer in the opening frame. A Tuffy Gosewisch RBI single in the second made it a 3-1 game, but in the third, following a walk, hit and walk to load the bases for Netherlands, Jonathan Schoop, the Orioles’ No.7 prospect pictured here, slapped a triple to right to clear the bags.

USA second baseman Joe Thurston threw to third in attempt to catch Schoop, but the ball went over Tommy Mendonca’s head, scoring School and pushing the score to 7-1. Smith, a former Cardinals farmhand, hit his home run off USA starter Matt Shoemaker, an Angels prospect with Double-A Arkansas.

Despite the error, Thurston was outstanding at the plate, going 4-for-4 with two RBIs. Thurston has recorded at least one base hit in each of the seven World Cup games in which he has played. He leads the team with a .433 batting average. A.J. Pollock continued his hot hitting as well, with a home run and two RBIs on a 2-for-5 night. Pollock’s third inning home run was his second of the tournament, tying him for first on the team with Matt Clark.

Shoemaker (0-1) was roughed up in his debut for the Americans. The right-hander allowed seven runs in three innings pitched, while walking three and striking out two. From the fourth on, however, Justin Cassel, Jeff Beliveau and Scott Patterson combined to allow only one hit and walk to help keep the USA in the game. Cassel was stellar, going three scoreless innings, allowing one hit while striking out five.

Thurston’s two-run single in the seventh inning pushed him to six RBIs for the tournament, leading the team. His four hits tied for second for the most all-time for a U.S. player in the World Cup. Thurston, a major league veteran, spent all but one game at Triple-A New Orleans this season.

Cuba wasted little time roughing up Team USA starter Jeff Marquez. Rusney Castillo and Alexei Bell collected back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the first, and moved up one base on a wild pitch. Freddie Cepeda followed with the third straight hit of the inning, a two-run single, and later scored on a groundout to put the two-time reigning champion in an early three-run hole.

The Americans answered back in the second on Tommy Medonca’s leadoff solo homer off Cuban starter Freddy Asiel Alvarez, and took the lead with a three-run third highlighted by a two-run single by Brett Carroll. But the tournament favorites rallied in the bottom of the same frame. Carroll, a Red Sox farmhand, had two hits, including a double, scored twice and drove in two runs.

Alfredo Despaigne followed a leadoff hit by Cepeda with a two-run blast to put Cuba back in front, 5-4. Both Ariel Pestano and Erisbel Arruebarruena added run-scoring hits to cap the four-run outburst.

Mendonca, a Texas Rangers infield prospect, was 3-for-4 with four RBIs and hit his second home run in as many days. He finished the game with three hits and four RBIs, with a two-run base hit in the fifth.

Cuba, which entered the second round sporting a perfect 7-0 card, added a key insurance run in the seventh on Jose Abreu’s RBI double.

Team USA moved closer in the eighth when Jordan Danks scored on an error to make it a one-run game. However, Cuban reliever Yadier Pedroso polished off a stellar seven strikeouts, three-inning scoreless stint by fanning the side in the ninth to pick up the save. Norberto Gonzalez (2-0) was credited with the win.

Photographs from IBAF

Van Ostrand stepped up to the plate with two men on base in the top of the sixth inning and doubled down the right field line to bring in Chris Robinson and Tim Smith. Both Robinson and Smith had two-out singles to start the rally.

“We’ve finally accomplished what we set out to do,” said Canada manager Ernie Whitt, a 15-year major league player. “I am so proud of these guys. They’ve worked so hard for this and didn’t give up.” Canada second baseman Skler Stromsmoe is shown here demonstrating excellent form while catching fielding a fly ball with two hands during the second inning.

The gold was Canada’s first at the Pan American Games, a competition that has been dominated by Cuba for 40 years. The Cubans had won 10 straight titles until they lost to the United States 12-10 in Monday’s semifinals. They instead had to settle for bronze. Canada beat Mexico in the other semifinal to get a chance at gold, and they didn’t let the chance slip away.

Andrew Albers started for Canada and gave up six hits while striking out eight through 6 2/3 innings. Scott Richmond came on in relief and shut down the Americans, striking out three of the seven batters he faced without surrendering a hit.

“Our guys played their hearts out,” U.S. manager Ernie Young said. “I wanted so much for those guys to win a gold medal. We just came up one run short.”

The Americans took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning at the Pan Am Baseball Stadium. A.J. Pollock singled through the right side with one out and advanced to second on a passed ball with two down. Brett Carroll then doubled down the left field line to bring in Pollock and give the U.S. an early lead. Carroll hit 16 home runs at Nashville and Pawtucket in 2011.

Andy Ven Hekken pitched seven innings for the Americans, and gave up both runs on six hits. Jeff Beliveau pitched the eighth, giving up one hit, and Pete Andrelczyk came on in the ninth.

“In every international baseball tournament there is a surprise team that comes out, plays their heart out and wins the event,” Young said. “Canada played unbelievably throughout the tournament. They only lost one game.”

“You only lose one game, you deserve to win.”

“This is the fifth time I’ve played Cuba, and we finally beat them,” said U.S. shortstop Jordy Mercer, who doubled in two runs in the fourth inning. “I told the guys that Cuba will never give up and to keep battling, and sure enough they came back. It’s just a credit to this team that we kept fighting.” Pictured here in the fourth inning, USA’s Thomas Mendonca slides safely into second base as Erisbel Arruebarruena waits for the ball.

Cuba has dominated baseball at the quadrennial games since the first tournament in 1951. It has won 12 of the 15 titles, including every one between 1971 and 2007. The United States, which beat the Cubans to win the gold in 1967, has finished second to Cuba eight times.

“I thought Saturday’s game against Mexico was one of my top baseball moments of all-time, but this game just jumped ahead,” Mercer said, comparing Monday’s game to the tight 3-2 loss to the host country in front of a raucous crowd.

Although the baseball victory didn’t add to the gold medal tally, the United States still won five more titles on Day 10 of the Pan American Games to bring its leading total to 62 gold and 165 overall.

The Americans cranked out 11 hits, and everyone in the lineup got at least one in Lagos de Moreno. Jordan Danks and Brett Carroll were the only players with two hits. Carroll is shown here hitting a foul ball in the first inning.

The U.S. took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third when Jim Gallagher doubled in two runs. The Americans scored five more in the fourth and stretched their lead to 12-2 by the fifth. They then held on as the Cubans chipped away.

“We jumped out to an early lead, but at no point did we think we were going to run away with it.” U.S. manager Ernie Young said. “Cuba is a great team and their players showed their fight today. They never gave up, but neither did our guys, and we held on for the win.”

Although the victory isn’t nearly as momentous as the U.S. hockey team’s win over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, known as the “Miracle on Ice,” it was still a big barrier to clear.

The United States was playing with professional players, something it didn’t do at the Pan American Games four years ago in Rio de Janeiro. Cuba, meanwhile, was coming off a loss to the Netherlands last week in the Baseball World Cup final.

Manager Jon Deeble said he was amazed at how well his team performed throughout the international tournament. “With a group of ten rookies, I think it was a fantastic job, one of our best finishes ever in international baseball,” said Deeble. It was a battle coming back from three straight losses to start the tournament.”

“We played fantastic defense, swung the bats well, and the pitching was outstanding,” said Deeble. If a few breaks would have gone our way, we would have been playing for the gold, so it’s quite an accomplishment.”

Australia went to an early lead, scoring in the first inning, and after South Korea tied it in the third, Team Australia answered right back to keep the lead the rest of the game.

Australia won four straight games, after being beaten in their first three games of the tournament, to advance to the second round. With a win over top ranked Canada in the second round, and beating tournament host Panama, Australia was able to secure fifth place with the final win over South Korea.

Manager Deeble said with such a young team, the future only looks brighter for Australian baseball. “They can only get better, so if we can get everyone back at the right time, Australian baseball can only move forward from here,” Deeble said.

With the fifth place finish, this marks a repeat of Australia’s best finish in the IBAF Baseball World Cup. Full stats and results can be found at www.ibaf.org.

Those tournament victories show the increased parity of international baseball in the professional era, which began in 1998. In just the last six years, seven different nations have claimed international or continental tournaments, from Canada and the Dutch this year to Cuba (2005 World Cup), Japan (two World Baseball Classic), South Korea (’08 Olympics), the Dominican Republic (’10 Pan Am qualifier) and the United States (’07 and ’09 World Cups).

The international calendar, however, is about to become much more streamlined. The International Baseball Federation will no longer hold the Baseball World Cup, instead ceding the title of “world champion” to the winner of the World Baseball Classic, Major League Baseball’s international event.

The WBC expands to 28 teams for its next installment, with 16 countries – including Canada and Taiwan – vying in four four-team pods in the fall of 2012. The four winners will join the top 12 finishers from the 2009 WBC in the 16-team in the spring of 2013.

“The effort of a lot of dedicated people at IBAF and around the world have gotten us to this point,” said Paul Archey, MLB’s senior vice president for international business operations. “It will be a less-cluttered landscape, which I think will be a positive.”

“Clearly, the WBC has quickly become the premier international baseball event. It is the one spot in which the best players in the world, regardless of their professional or amateur status, can play for their country at the highest level.”

IBAF president Riccardo Fraccari said his organization’s top-level tournament will build off the WBC. Its next major tournament with professional will be called the Premier 12 and is tentatively scheduled for 2015. Premier 12 likely will be limited to non-40-man roster players, like the World Cup before it.

Meanwhile, IBAF will continue to press its case for Olympic reinstatement for baseball. “For the Netherlands to win the World Cup is very important, to show baseball is truly a global sport that is growing in Europe,” Fraccari said in a phone interview from Rome. “I think we can show to the International Olympic Committee that baseball is not only an American sport.”

“Baseball is globalizing. The best athletes are no longer just American. Japan won the last two Classics. Almost 50 percent of players in MLB (organizations) are not American. With (Seattle’s) Alex Liddi, Italy has its first major leaguer. And now you have the Netherlands winning the World Cup.”

IBAF will continue to put on youth tournaments, and Archey said MLB has contemplated its own events at the junior level. “We have talked about a ‘World Baseball Classic Junior’ … but our focus needs to be on getting the senior tournament right first.”

“It was a fun game, and like (Saturday), they played better and better against us,” said New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano, who homered and singled in the series finale. “I like the way they play the game. They play hard. And it’s great to see these fans, the way they support the game. Hopefully we can come back, because it’s been a lot of fun.”

The trip offered MLB a chance to increase its exposure in Taiwan, one of two Asian countries in which the sport is widely popular.

On Tuesday night, November 1, in Xinzhuang, Curtis Granderson, pictured here, hit a grand slam to lead the MLB stars to a 7-0 win over Taiwan’s national team. The Yankees slugger went deep off Yao-Hsun-Yang in the third inning, electrifying the crowd at the suburban Taipei stadium before the game was called in the sixth inning because of rain.

The big leaguers added two runs in the 4th on a single by Emilio Bonifacio of the Florida Marlins and another in the 5th when Michael Morse of the Washington Nationals doubled off the wall in left center.

Granderson said that despite his success on the home run ball, it was a challenge facing Yang, whom he had never faced him before. “I didn’t know what he would throw,” he said. “I had to make adjustments.”

On Thursday, November 3, Robinson Cano doubled in a run in the seventh inning to help the MLB All-Stars beat Taiwan’s national team 5-3 in the second game of the five-game series. The Yankees’ second baseman also singled and scored in the sixth inning in the game Taichung. “They got a great team,” Cano said. “They played a pretty good game.”

The Taiwanese went ahead 3-2 in the fifth, scoring twice on three hits and a walk. The MLB squad tied it in the sixth and added two more runs in the seventh.

Relievers Rich Thompson of the Los Angeles Angels, Ramon Ramirez of the San Francisco Giants and Bill Bray of the Cincinnati Reds kept the Taiwanese scoreless from the sixth inning on.

On Friday, November 4, in Taipei, Washington Nationals first baseman Michael Morse hit a towering home run over the center field wall to lead the MLB All-Star team to a 6-2 win over the Taiwan national team. The MLB All-Stars lead 3-0 in the five-game series.

Morse doubled in a run in the first inning before hitting the solo shot in the third in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung. Kansas City Royals right-hander Feipe Paulino started the game for the All-Stars and scattered three hits over four innings.

Then in the fourth game on Saturday, November 5, Morse hit a two-run single in the sixth inning to lead the MLB All-Star team to a 3-2 win over the Taiwan national team. Ryan Roberts of the Arizona Diamondbacks led off the inning with a walk and went to third on a double to the right-center field by Cano.

Starting pitcher Dillon Gee of the New York Mets allowed one run and five hits in five innings.

On Sunday, Taiwan’s national baseball team, with the country’s most popular pitcher on the mound, lost the fifth game in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. Despite the confidence starter Chien-Ming Wang of the Washington Nationals brought to the national team, it suffered its fifth consecutive loss in the series.

It was the first time Wang, shown here, was pitching in his home country since 2003 when he played in a warm-up game for the Asian Baseball Championship. “I feel very happy to play for Taiwan again,” Wang said after the game. “I want to thank the fans for their support.”

The game heated up in the second inning when Logan Morrison of the Florida Marlins doubled, followed by a single by Josh Reddick of the Boston Red Sox to score a run. The MLB kept up the drive as Jeff Mathis and Erick Aybar of the Los Angeles Angels singled and doubled to score two more runs, gaining a 3-0 lead.

Taiwan’s national team gave hot chase in the bottom of the second with the bases loaded. After Pan Chih-fang of the Oakland Athletics slugged a double to score two runs, Kuo Fu-lin of the New York Yankees came back to the home plate to tie the score on a ground out by Lin Che-hsuan of the Boston Red Sox.

However, Robinson Cano did not allow the Taiwan team to catch its breath. In the first half of the third, he hammered a solo shot, his first and only in the series, off Yank Yao-hsun, who took the mound in the third after local hero Wang threw 45 pitches. Wang pitched a no-decision game, allowing four hits and three runs, including one earned run, throughout two innings.

Both sides added one more run in the fifth inning, but another solo home run by Ty Wigginton of the Colorado Rockies extended the lead to 6-4 in the first half of the seventh. Neither team scored any runs in the following innings.

Orioles’ starter Jeremy Guthrie (four innings, three earned runs) and relievers LaTroy Hawkins, Rich Thompson of the Angels, the Pirates’ Jose Vera and Mark Melancon of the Astros combined to close out Chinese Taipei, which impressed MLB with its toughness.

The MLB All-Stars didn’t score more than seven runs in a game, and three of the five games were decided by fewer than three runs.

Bruce Bochy, skipper for the MLB team, said “It could have gone either way. Sure, we won five games, you could see their confidence growing and they were playing right there with us. It’s good for baseball and for Taiwan. You could see their confidence growing. They were playing right there with us. They were playing against some of the best players in the world,” Bochy said.

Photographs by Pichi Chuang, Reuters; IBAF; and Canadian Press

MLB Players thank Taiwanese Fans for Hospitality

Two New York Yankees players, who were in Taiwan for the five-game exhibition series, expressed their gratitude for the hospitality and passion shown by Taiwanese fans.

At a fan event in Kaohsiung, Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano, pictured here, said they were very happy to visit Taiwan and have enjoyed their stay very much. “Thank you very much. We appreciate you guys having us here,” said Granderson. “People everywhere are hospitable, enjoyable, knowledgeable, and energetic.”

Granderson, who led the Major Leaguers with 136 runs this past season, slugged a grand slam in the first game of the Taiwan series and charmed most Taiwan fans.

Meanwhile, Robinson’s father Jose Cano, who pitched briefly in the major leagues for the Houston Astros in 1989, also attended the fan meeting. Jose Cano, who played for Taiwan’s Uni-President Lions from 1992 to 1994 and the Wei Chuan Dragons from 1998 to 1999, said he was also excited to come back to his “second home,” Taiwan.

The baseball stars did not have much time to interact with the fans after throwing some Uni-President souvenirs into the crowds, as the fifth and final exhibition series was scheduled to begin.

MLB said the games are being held in Japan to help assist with the rebuilding efforts in Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this year that left thousands dead and billions of dollars in damage.

“Opening Series 2012 will be an excellent opportunity to bring the game of baseball to fans across the globe and to celebrate the many contributions to the game by Japanese players,” MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. “Most importantly, with the shared love of baseball between our nations, I believe that we can use this event to further assist the ongoing relief efforts throughout Japan.”

Michael Weiner, Executive Director of the MLB Players Association, said, “We are honored to open the 2012 season in Japan. The opening series provides Major League players with an opportunity to use baseball – a sport cherished and revered by both our nations – and to help our Japanese friends continue their recovery from the devastating tsunami. Major League players look forward to playing before some of the most passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.”

The two games in Japan next year are expected to draw sellout crowds, with the Mariners and their hugely-popular Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki returning home. Mariners President Chuck Armstrong said, “The Seattle Mariners are proud to represent Major League Baseball and open the 2012 regular season in Japan against the Oakland Athletics. This will be a memorable experience for our players and our organization.” The Athletics will be the home team, the Mariners the “road” team.”

Oakland A’s President Michael Crowley said, “The Oakland A’s are honored and privileged to participate in this season-opening series. We were fortunate to make our first visit to Japan in 2008 and still remember fondly the warm reception we received from the fans, the host teams, and the people of Japan. We are very excited about returning next season.”

The Mariners and Athletics seem logical choices to play in Japan. Japan native Ichiro Suzuki is in the final year of his contract. Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui, who becomes a free agent at the end of the season, could re-sign with the Athletics.