Preview: USA and Venezuela play for Bronze at the Tokyo Dome

For the third time in the tournament and for the second time in as many days the No. 5 of the WBSC/KONAMI Men’s Baseball World Rankings, USA, and the No. 4, Venezuela, will take place in the Bronze Medal Game at the WBSC Premier12 2024 presented by RAXUS at 12pm local time on Sunday at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.

The two teams met in the opening round of Group A in Mexico with Venezuela prevailing 5-3. Then on Saturday they clashed in Super Round with USA winning 6-5 in a spectacular back-and-forth affair. USA blew a 5-0 lead in the process, but still ended up as winners after a ninth-inning home run by Ryan Ward. Both teams missed out on the final in a three-way tie with finalist Chinese Taipei.

“We areplaying a world-class tournament and we missed the gold medal game for a run ormaybe an out. We will remember this experience for our lives,” said Venezuela’smanager Omar Lopez after the Saturday’s contest. “Still, tomorrow it's justanother game. We will take the field and play hard. We will go afterthat bronze medal.”

Now the twofamiliar foes will square up again with the bronze medal on the line. Venezuelaalready clinched their best-ever finish at the WBSC Premier12 by reaching theSuper Round and the top four. They finished ninth in 2015 and seventh in 2019.
USA meanwhile medaled already in 2015 with silver and then ended up in fourthplace in 2019.

“We alreadyfaced Venezuela twice,” said USA manager Mike Scioscia after Saturday’s game. “Theybeat us in the Opening Round and we won today. They are a good team, with asolid pitching staff. What we can do is go out there and play a good game.
Hopefully we can get an early lead and hold on to it.”

Scioscia isgiving Casey Lawrence the nod as starting pitcher. The 37-year-old veteranright-hander, a former MLB player for the Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Marinersand St. Louis Cardinals, made one appearance so far, conceding two runs on fourhits in 3 1/3 innings against the Netherlands in the opening round. He struckout four.

Venezuela’smanager Omar Lopez has chosen 30-year-old right-hander Mario Sanchez. Its aninteresting choice, as he already faced Team USA in the tournament, throwingsix strong innings in their opening round win, allowing three hits and two runs(1 ER), while striking out ten. He played for the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lionsin the CPBL this year.