TOKYO – Casey Lawrence struck out seven batters in six shutout innings to help Team USA beat Venezuela, 6-1, in the bronze medal game of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 presented by RAXUS on Sunday afternoon at the Tokyo Dome.
The bronze medal is Team USA’s first at the Premier12 and second overall medal in three iterations of the tournament.
In the United States’ biggest game of the tournament, Lawrence (1-0) delivered. The 37-year-old veteran right hander filled up the zone all day long, only reaching a three-ball count once in his six strong innings. Lawrence set the side down in order in the first and then erased a leadoff single with a 4-6-3 double play in the second, facing the minimum through two.
As Lawrence worked, Team USA’s bats demonstrated patience to give him some early support in the top of the third. A trio of walks to Chris Okey, Justin Crawford, and Matt Shaw loaded the bases for Carson Williams, who hit a sacrifice fly to center field to plate the game’s first run. Ryan Ward drew a walk to re-load the bases for Colby Thomas, who was hit by the first pitch he saw to bring Crawford home and put the U.S. in front 2-0.
Given a two-run advantage, Lawrence worked around a leadoff single in the bottom of the third to turn in a crucial shutdown frame. An inning later, Lawrence allowed a one-out single to Herlis Rodriguez to bring power-hitting cleanup man Carlos E. Perez to the plate as the tying run. But Lawrence quickly halted the threat by picking Rodriguez off first and striking out Perez, pumping his fist as he walked off the mound with the two-run lead still intact.
The U.S. had a chance to increase its lead in the top of the fifth. Simpson began the frame with a double–giving him a hit in all nine tournament games–before advancing to third on a fly out. Nivaldo Rodriguez picked up back-to-back strikeouts to escape the jam, though, and kept his side within striking distance.
Lawrence returned to the mound in the fifth and needed just 11 pitches to retire the side in order, including a pair of strikeouts.
The right hander would then get some more run support in the top of the sixth. Luke Ritter was hit by a pitch between singles from Termarr Johnson and Okey, loading the bases with one out. After a strikeout recorded the second out of the inning, Simpson hit a ground ball to shortstop and the speedster hustled down the line to beat it out to drive in Johnson. Ritter then scored on a wild pitch as the stars and stripes’ lead grew to four.
Nearing the end of his outing, Lawrence continued to dominate. He got the leadoff hitter to fly out and then struck out David Rodriguez on three pitches to quickly retire the first two batters. Venezuela leadoff hitter Alexi Amarista was able to muscle a two-out single for the fourth hit of the day off Lawrence, but the righty coaxed an inning-ending fielder’s choice to finish off his stellar six frames of work.
The U.S. continued to add on in the eighth, again showing patience by drawing three walks to load the bases with two outs. The big spot found Williams again and the young shortstop stepped up, smoking a two-run double to left center for his second and third RBIs of the game to balloon the United States’ lead to six. It was Williams’ tournament-leading fifth double of the Premier12.
Venezuela got one back off Anthony Gose–who had entered in the seventh and pitched a hitless frame–in the bottom of the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Amarista. Dan Altavilla replaced Gose and quickly struck out Diego Castillo with a runner on third to maintain the 6-1 lead for the red, white, and blue.
Altavilla then returned to the mound in the bottom of the ninth. He struck out Herlis Rodriguez on three pitches and got Carlos E. Perez to ground out to third, bringing Ramon Flores to the plate with two outs in the ninth. Altavilla got ahead in the count and then froze Flores with a 97-mph fastball down the heart of the plate to get the final out and secure Team USA’s bronze medal.
Lawrence’s outing continued a trend of dominant starting pitching by the U.S. at the Premier12. In nine total games, Team USA starters posted a 1.13 ERA, allowing just four earned runs in 32 innings. The group struck out 38 batters and walked just six. Lawrence’s six-inning performance tied him with Zeke Spruill and Zack Segovia for the longest start by a United States pitcher at the Premier12.
Simpson again led the charge at the plate. The leadoff hitter collected his fifth multi-hit game of the tournament to give him 17 total knocks in nine games, leading all players at the Premier12. Simpson had at least one hit in every game and finished the tournament with a .459 average and a .500 on-base percentage. Okey added two knocks and scored two runs, and Williams finished his day with two hits and three RBIs.
Mario Sanchez (1-1) suffered the loss for Venezuela. After shutting the U.S. offense down for six innings in the Opening Round, Sanchez couldn’t find the plate in the bronze medal game, walking four batters and allowing two runs in 2.2 innings pitched.
Team USA finished the Premier12 with a .281 team batting average, its highest in three trips to the tournament. The stars and stripes’ pitchers combined for 86 strikeouts, also surpassing the totals of the 2015 and 2019 squads. The United States is now just one of three countries in the world with two Premier12 medals alongside Japan and Korea.
