Preview: Venezuela, Puerto Rico start off Day 5 of Group A at the WBSC Premier12 2024

Venezuela, the No. 4 in the KONAMI/WBSC Men’s Baseball World Rankings, is facing No. 8 Puerto Rico on day five in Group A of the opening round at the WBSC Premier12 2024 presented by RAXUS on Wednesday at 1pm local time Estadio Panamericano Charros de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Venezuela is coming off a rest day and is sitting comfortably in the Group A standings with a 2-1 record after wins over Mexico (8-4) and USA (5-3), while losing to Panama (2-4). Puerto Rico meanwhile needs to rebound from a tough 8-20 loss to the Netherlands on Tuesday evening. The massive defeat dropped them to 1-2 and puts pressure on their backs if they want to keep hopes for the Super Round alive. They had started off the tournament with a 1-0 nailbiter win over USA and then lost to Mexico 5-7.

Venezuelais hitting .273/.327/.414 with 15 runs on 27 hits in the tournament. CarlosPerez is leading his offense with six hits in twelve at-bats. Jermaine Palacioshas accounted for the two home runs of the team so far. While Puerto Rico’spitching stats took a hit from Tuesday’s 20-run Dutch attack, they are hitting.255/.342/.418 with 14 runs on 25 hits in three games so far. Sabin Ceballos,John Montes and Ezequiel Pagan have hit home runs for Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico’smanager Juan Gonzalez is sending 34-year-old veteran Luis Cruz to the mound asstarting pitcher. The left-hander will already make his third appearance in theWBSC Premier12 2024. He closed out the shutout over USA on Saturday and thenwalked two batters in his outing against Mexico on the next day. The former minorleaguer in the Houston Astros organization, pitched in the Puerto Rican WinterLeague with an ERA of 2.31 in ten starts during the 2023/2024 season. He had 44strikeouts and 20 walks in 50.2 innings pitched.

Venezuela’smanager Omar Lopez is giving starting pitcher duties to right-hander MaxCastillo. The 25-year-old is a former MLB player for the Toronto Blue Jays andKansas City Royals. From 2022 to 2023 he went 0-3 with an ERA of 5.43 in 21appearances, six of them were starts. He struck out 47 and walked 24 in 59.2innings pitched in that time. This year he was with the Philadelphia Phillies organization,splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A with a combined ERA of 7.62 through52 innings.

Venezuelaand Puerto Rico have split the last ten games in head-to-head matchups since2011 with each program winning five. They met during the opening round at theWBSC Premier12 in 2019 as well with Venezuela prevailing 7-1. In the SuperRound of the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup this year, Puerto Rico won a 3-0shutout.