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After Pool A of the World Baseball Classic ended in a five-way tie, Cuba and Italy are advancing to the next round. Cuba wins the pool based on tiebreakers and will face Australia, the Pool B runner-up, in the quarterfinals. Italy advances as the runner-up team -- clinching a spot

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- Coming into Pool A of the World Baseball Classic, Cuba looked to be one of the favorites. The Cubans lost to Netherlands, then they lost to Italy -- falling into an 0-2 hole and having to deal with questions about team unity and why nobody was hitting.

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- If you’ve been watching any of the Chinese Taipei games in Pool A of the World Baseball Classic, you’ve likely noticed the loud, relentless crowds. There’s nothing like it in the world. Down 10 runs, up 10 runs, first inning, last inning – the loyal Taiwanese fans

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- Teams before had been warned of it, and although Netherlands manager Hensley Meulens said his squad wouldn’t be bothered by the deafening Chinese Taipei crowd noise in its Pool A matchup, he did have some idea of what was coming.

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- Right after Tzu-Wei Lin crushed a home run to right field in the bottom of the first to send the sellout Taiwanese crowd into a frenzy, you knew this game had the potential to be a high-scoring one. The fans, loud as ever, wanted it. And, well,

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- A sellout crowd rolled into Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium on Wednesday night to watch its home team, Chinese Taipei, square off against Panama. Cheerleaders danced on dugouts, fans banged thundersticks and call-and-response chants rang out from behind home plate all the way to the outfield seats mid

When Pool A play in Taichung, Taiwan, concludes, many expect that Cuba and the Netherlands will move on to the quarterfinals in Tokyo, but the margins are a lot closer than you may think at first glance. Italy -- led by manager Mike Piazza -- has Major League stars joined

It’s nearly here. After a six-year wait, the World Baseball Classic has returned, and it’s bigger than ever. That’s not hyperbole, either: The tournament field has been expanded to 20 teams, with three first-time participants in Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Nicaragua hoping for a Cinderella run. But they’ll

First brought to the island at the turn of the 20th century, baseball caught on quickly in Taiwan during the 1920s and '30s. One of the biggest reasons? The 1931 Kano baseball team. The multi-ethnic, multi-faceted squad famously shocked the world at Japan's Koshien tournament -- so much that the