The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks will face the Caimanes de Barranquilla in the inaugural final of the WBSC Baseball Champions League Americas. (Photo Courtesy WBSC)
By Leif Skodnick
World Baseball Network
MERIDA, Mexico – After five game of Round Robin play at the 2023 Baseball Champions League, four teams have been reduced to two.
Regardless of the outcome of Saturday night’s game between the Alazanes de Granma of the Serie Nacional de Cuba and the Leones de Yucatan of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, neither team can advance, even though a win by Granma would give them the same 2-1 win-loss record as the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks of the American Association and the Caimanes de Barranquilla.
Under the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Team Quality Balance tie-breaking criteria, ties are broken by a series of considerations.
According to information distributed by the WBSC to the media prior to the tournament, the first criteria states, “The team that won the game(s) between the teams tied shall be given the higher position.” If Granma wins Saturday’s night cap, they would be tied at 2-1 with the Caimanes and the RedHawks. However, the Alazanes would have a 1-1 record against those two teams, as do the RedHawks, who lost to Granma 3-1 on Thursday and beat Barranquilla 10-6 on Saturday. Barranquilla also has a 1-1 record, having defeated Granma 7-3 on Friday and losing to Fargo-Moorhead 10-6 on Saturday.
The tiebreaker then would proceed to the second criteria, which is Team Quality Balance. According to the information provided byt the WBSC, the TQB is calculated as follows: (runs scored / innings played at bat) – (runs allowed / innings playing on defense).
However, Granma cannot finish first or second in this tiebreaker, as any runs scored against Yucatan Saturday night would not be included, since Yucatan is already eliminated.
Thus, Fargo-Moorhead and Barranquilla advance to the championship game, and Fargo-Moorhead is considered the winner of the round robin because they beat Barranquilla 10-6 on Saturday.