Baseball teams to vie for Olympic spot in Port St. Lucie, West Palm Beach starting Monday

On Memorial Day, eight teams will begin vying in Port St. Lucie and West Palm Beach for a shot at making the Olympics Games in Tokyo that are slated to start July 23.

Seven will go home while one team will head to Tokyo.

From May 31 to June 5, Clover Park in St. Lucie County and The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach will host National Teams from the United States, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, Canada and Colombia.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation Baseball's Americas Qualifier in being hosted by USA Baseball.

"The teams and the entire baseball world are all looking forward to this exciting moment to arrive on the road to the Olympic Games Tokyo,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari.

The competing participants will be split into two groups to start the qualifier:

Group A: No. 2 USA, No. 10 Dominican Republic, No. 11 Puerto Rico and No. 15 Nicaragua.

Group B: No. 8 Cuba, No. 9 Venezuela, No. 13 Canada and No. 14 Colombia.

After group play concludes, the top two finishers from each group will advance to the Super Round, where they will each play two games.

Head-to-head contests among these teams from the opening round will carry over into 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 Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament, joining world No. 1 Japan, No. 3 Korea, No. 5 Mexico and No. 18 Israel.

The second-and the third-place teams will qualify for the WBSC Baseball Final Qualifier, scheduled from June 16-20 in Taiwan at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium and Douliou Baseball Stadium in Douliu City.

The other participating teams are world No. 4 Chinese Taipei, No. 6 Australia, No. 9 Netherlands and No. 22 China.

Below is the slate of games:

Monday, May 31

1 p.m. — Puerto Rico at Dominican Republic, Clover Park

1 p.m. — Venezuela at Cuba, The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

7 p.m. — U.S.A. at Nicaragua, Clover Park

7 p.m. — Colombia at Canada, The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

Tuesday, June 1

1 p.m. — Colombia at Venezuela, Clover Park

1 p.m. — Nicaragua at Puerto Rico, The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

7 p.m. — Canada at Cuba, Clover Park

7 p.m. — Dominican Republic at U.S.A., The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

Wednesday, June 2

1 p.m. — Nicaragua at Dominican Republic, Clover Park

1 p.m. — Canada at Venezuela, The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

7 p.m. — Puerto Rico at U.S.A., Clover Park

7 p.m. — Cuba at Colombia, The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

Thursday, June 3

Day of rest or rain makeup day

Friday, June 4

1 p.m. — TBD, The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

7 p.m. — TBD, The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

Saturday, June 5

1 p.m. — TBD, Clover Park

7 p.m. — TBD, Clover Park