OTTAWA- Canada will face Colombia on May 31st to open the WBSC Baseball Americas Olympic Qualifier after the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today announced the schedule for the eight-team tournament that will take place in Palm Beach and St. Lucie, Florida.
Canada is in Group B and will then face Cuba on June 1st in St. Lucie before heading back to Palm Beach to wrap-up opening round play against Venezuela on June 2.
Group A consists of host USA along with the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico with the top two countries in each group advancing to the Super Round.
Teams will play two Super Round games with head-to-head contests from the opening round counting towards the Super Round standings.
The team with the best Super Round record will be declared the winner and become the fifth National Team to advance to the baseball tournament of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, joining already qualified nations host Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Israel.
The runner-up and the third-place team in the Americas Qualifier will play the WBSC Final Baseball Qualifier, scheduled from June 16-20 in Taichung and Douliou City, Taiwan.
In Taiwan, the two Americas teams will be joined by host Chinese Taipei, Australia, China and the Netherlands with the winner earning the sixth and final spot in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.