World Baseball Classic Breakdown Of Round Two, Semi-Finals And Final: How It All Works Out [SCHEDULE INCLUDED]
Now that the World Baseball Classic has finished the round one pool play, the confusion over how the rest of the tournament works begins.
Round one featured 16 teams, split into four groups of four teams. Each team in each pool played each other in "pool-play." The top two teams from each division made it to round two, cutting the original 16 down to eight.
Out of group A, the Kingdom of Cuba and Japan, two-time winner and the only country to win the WBC advanced to the second round. Group B survivors were Chinese Taipei and the Kingdom of Netherlands. Coming out of Group C are Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The United States and Italia made it out of Group D.
Sunday began the beginning of round two. The winners of Group A and B now becomes a foursome for round two. The same is said for Group C and D. The two separate groups now play in a two-game elimination format.
If the United States loses Tuesday night against Puerto Rico, the Americans are not yet eliminated from the third installment of the WBC, which now takes place once every four years.
There are no tiebreakers like there was for round one. In round one, Korea lost in the tiebreaker because of run differential in the three games they played. Chinese Taipei, along with the Dutch, advanced to round two because of a better run differential, even though all three teams finished 2-1 in pool-play.
Round two begins Tuesday for all four teams. "In Pool 2 here, the two losers on Tuesday will play at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The loser in that game will be the first to have been defeated twice and thus eliminated from the tournament. The two winners from the opening day play on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET and the survivor of that game will be the first to secure a spot in San Francisco. On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, the winner from Wednesday will play the loser from Thursday to decide the second slot. The winner moves on and the loser goes home. And seeding for the semifinals will be determined when the two pool winners play at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday," according to MLB.com.
San Francisco is the host city of the final four of the WBC. Basically, the eight teams remaining will split down to four teams in San Francisco.
The final four will play in a one-game elimination tournament. The winner of one group plays the second seed of the second group, while the winner of the second group plays the second place team of the first group.
A champion will be crowned by Tuesday, March 19.
