On the final day of the preliminary round of the Premier 12 on Sunday, some teams wound up jumping for joy and some left with a bitter taste in their mouths.
Venezuela was in the latter group. The South Americans were in a good position to make it to the quarterfinal round heading into their game against Japan, but the ticket slipped from their grasp at the last moment in a 6-5 walk-off loss.
Venezuela starting pitcher Freddy Garcia, however, gave a canny yet gutsy performance. The 39-year-old former major league hurler threw for 7⅓ innings on 123 pitches, giving up three runs, against Samurai Japan.