Saturday, November 5, 2022 – 12:00 a.m.
Panama will debut against Taiwan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic
They will have to start by hitting the premises. Panama will debut against Taiwan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic on Wednesday, March 8, an event in which it is located in Group A, along with the teams of Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Italy and the Netherlands.
The schedule was revealed yesterday on the Baseball Classic website.
‘We have to play against all the teams, they are all good. We have to play good baseball, full stop’, were the words of manager Luis Ortiz, upon learning of the schedule.
That first game will be at 6 a.m. at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
The next day, on the same stage on Thursday, March 9 at 11 p.m., he goes against the Netherlands.
For Friday, March 10, their rival will be Cuba at 11:30 at night. While on Saturday, March 11, he closes his regular round against Italy at 11 p.m.
They will have to play the first five games in a row, before taking a rest on the last day, something that does not bother Ortiz.
‘I prefer to play every day, that’s perfect, playing every day the player has more rhythm. A lot of hitters need 8 to 10 at-bats to get comfortable,’ he explained.
Panama must also quickly adapt to the 13-hour time difference.
‘That’s hard, when you go to the other continent, the players adapt differently to that jetlag,’ he explained.
From that group two teams advance to the next round which will be in Tokyo, Japan.
Ortiz aspires to have the best selection possible, especially players linked to Major League organizations.
It will be the third participation of the canaleros in that tournament, since they already did it in 2006 and 2009. They failed in the classification of 2012 and 2016, but they are back in the big party.
They earned their ticket in the last tie held at Rod Carew Stadium, beating Argentina and Brazil.
The Classic will be played in March with the participation of 20 teams. The first round of four groups will take place in Tokyo, Taichung, Miami and Phoenix.
We have to play against all the teams, they are all good. We have to play good baseball, full stop.’
LUIS ORTIZ
TECHNICIAN OF PANAMA
