Japan in Prime Position at Women's Baseball Champs

(ATR) The United States, host country for the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup, needs a little help from Canada for a chance to advance to the gold-medal game against Japan.

The final three games in the Super Round are today, with the gold- and bronze-medal games on Friday in Viera, Florida. Japan, the only undefeated team in the tournament and the five-time defending world champion, is assured of making the final no matter the outcome of its game this morning against Venezuela.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola is expected to be in attendance at USSSA Space Coast Stadium on Friday. He is a baseball fan whose Francis Ford Coppola Winery is a tournament sponsor. Coppola was a spectator Wednesday and chatted with members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated between 1943 and 1954 and was featured in the film "A League of Their Own."

Call it "The Godfather" meets "The Godmothers."

As a director and screenwriter, Coppola can appreciate how the plot thickens today.

All scenarios for the second team in the gold-medal game hinge on the final score of the Canada-Chinese Taipei game at 1 p.m.

If Canada wins, both teams will have a 3-2 record (with two games in the Opening Round carrying over to the Super Round). Then if Team USA defeats Dominican Republic in the 6 p.m. game, all three teams will be tied at 3-2.

Based on the head-to-head, the U.S. has the advantage over Canada thanks to its 5-1 win on Wednesday, but Chinese Taipei beat Team USA 4-3 on Sunday.

"Because each team won one game and lost one game against each other, we have to go to the second tier of the tiebreaker system, the TQB (Total Quality Balance)," tournament director Joan Garcia tells Around the Rings.

The TQB considers runs scored and runs permitted per inning in games between the three teams.

According to the official rules, "TQB is the sum of runs scored divided by the number of innings played on offense, minus the number of runs allowed, divided by the number of innings played on defense. For purposes of determining TQB, only the scores from the games between the tied teams are to be used in the calculation."

Of course, if Chinese Taipei defeats Canada, it will have a 4-1 record and meet Japan for the second time in three days. Japan prevailed 2-1 on Wednesday.

And if Canada wins and Team USA loses, Canada moves on to the gold-medal game.

Written and reported byKaren Rosenin Viera, Florida

Coverage of the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup is made possible in part by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.

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