Nicaragua, Chinese Taipei advance to WBC

The first set of qualifiers for next year’s World Baseball Classic are complete, with Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei advancing.

Nicaragua swept through the qualifying pool, winning all three of its games — the first two coming on 10th-inning walk-offs. This marks the second time Nicaragua has qualified for the WBC after reaching the 2023 tournament.

Chinese Taipei had a much tougher path despite coming into qualifiers as the favorite in the pool. They were upset in the opening game by a motivated team from Spain and had to claw their way into the final game for the last spot qualifying spot, only to face Spain once again. Chinese Taipei came out on top the second time, letting them continue a streak of reaching every WBC tournament to date.

Notable performances:

• Taipei first baseman Po-Hsuan Wang (8-for-15, .533/.632/.600) and shortstop Yu Cheng (7-for-18, four doubles and a homer, .389/.450/.778) led the way offensively.

• Spain’s DH Rusber Estrada led the pool with two homers and seven RBI, going 7-for-17 (.412/.474/.765).

• Nicaragua second baseman Brandon Leyton paced his team, going 6-for-13 with a homer (.462/.500/.846) in their three games.

• Spain’s Yeudy Garcia led all pitchers with seven innings pitched over two games, not allowing a run. Teammate Pablo Guillen threw six scoreless in his lone start.

• Guillen struck out 8 in his six innings. Nicaragua’s Ronald Medrano matched that total in his five innings. Only Spain’s Ramón Rosso topped them, with nine in his 4.2 IP (2 games).

• Closer Jyun-Yue Tseng worked a dominant ninth to close the final game and secure Chinese Taipei’s spot.

The final qualifiers begin Sunday in Tucson, Arizona between Brazil, China, Columbia, and Germany.

Rhody baseball creating headlines

Focus doesn’t land on the University of Rhode Island very often. The Rams are off to an uneven start to their season, with a 3-4 record and a pair of rainouts already on their schedule.

Twice, though, the URI team has fueled headlines this year.

URI and William & Mary had an absolute slugfest to finish their season-opening series. Fifteen pitchers were used in the seven-inning game that saw a combined 58 runs scored between the two teams, including 17 by the Rams in the 5th inning.

Freshman outfielder Adonis Medina entered the game as a pinch hitter in the prior inning and hit two homers in the fifth. He also walked three times in the game.

Left-handed starter Trystan Levesque had a phenomenal outing last Saturday against 11th-ranked Oregon. The graduate student threw 10.0 scoreless innings, allowing just three hits while striking out nine. The outing was enough for Levesque to earn Atlantic 10 Co-Pitcher of the Week honors.

Elsewhere, around the sport …

• Texas A&M had a rough weekend. The top-ranked team in the country lost their first game of the season to Cal Poly and then lost their third baseman, Gavin Grahovac, to a serious shoulder injury. He’ll likely miss the remainder of the season. Grahovac had seriously impressed as a freshman last year and looked like a key piece of the Aggies offense.

• Florida State starter Jamie Arnold continued his strong start to the season. Over 10 IP he’s only given up three hits and has yet to allow a run while striking out 16.