the match 3 runs to 2. As a result, South Korea and Japan advanced to the second round as first and second place finishers in Group A respectively. Cuba was drawn into Group C of the first round, with fellow Caribbean rival Puerto Rico as host. The group consisted of Panama from Central America along with the Netherlands from Europe–both widely regarded as the best in their respective regions–and the aforementioned Caribbean nations. Cuba had a slightly tougher time in their group, with a 2 run win against Panama and a 9 run rout in favor of Puerto Rico. However, the group did no resort to tiebreakers. As such, Puerto Rico and Cuba advanced to the second round as first and second place finishers in Group C respectively. Other countries who advanced from the first round were the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the United States, and Venezuela. Round two Japan and South Korea met with the top two finishers of Group B: Mexico and the United States (the host of this pool). Although Japan comfortably defeated Mexico by five runs, the Japanese would struggle against the United States and South Korea at this stage. The match against the United States sparked a controversy regarding a sacrifice fly appeal. The game was highly competitive with consistent back-and-forth leads up to the eighth where the controversy occurred. When Tsuyoshi Nishioka was on third base, he ran to the home plate once the sacrifice fly was hit from Akinori Iwamura. Initially, Japan scored another run to make the score four to three. However, the call was overturned because Nishioka ran earlier than allowed. This led to the United States defeating Japan from Alex Rodriguez's run batted in at the bottom of the ninth. In addition, Japan would lose to South Korea–who would sweep the group–by one run again. Japan, Mexico, and the United States would finish at 1–2 in Pool 1. However, Japan would be declared as the second place finishers due to their amount of runs scored by their opponents and innings pitched. Group 2 was much less complex, although a tiebreaker was still used. Cuba and Puerto Rico met with the first and second place finishers of Group D: the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. The Cubans would edge host Puerto Rico by 1 run and comfortably defeat Venezuela by 5 runs. However, Cuba would lose to the Dominican Republic by four runs,