The dominance of the Cuban team has never been questioned, even after its narrow opening game come-from-behind win against Australia the team had won five straight, not really being seriously threatened in any one game.

But behind the pitching of Diegomar Markwell and David Bergman, the Dutch squad held the mighty Cuban offense to just one run on five hits and topped Fidel’s boys by a 2-1 count.  

The loss was Cuba’s first since 2001 when it was bested by  Japan 4-3, before proceeding to win  the championship.

With the loss the Netherlands locked up the No. 3 position in Group B,  setting up a  matchup with the No. 2 seed from Group A, which is the  Chinese Taipei who made a nice effort versus Team USA, but in the end lost 10-7.

In winning  Team USA clinched Group A and will play  a dangerous Korean team, who narrowly lost to a very good Australian team on Sunday, and shutout Canada.

Canada was eliminated from the Cup after losing a heartbreaker to Australia Wednesday night.  With the game tied going into the ninth the Australians scored three to take a 7-4 lead. The Canadian team would score two, but were unable to put a final run across and lost 7-6.  

Australia clinched the No. 2 position in Group B and will play Japan, who defeated Spain 4-3 to clinch  the No. 3 seed in Group A.