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sports Diaranson 2 Juni 2021

US beats Nicaragua to open 2nd chance at Olympic baseball

(AP) — Todd Frazier hit a two-run sixth inning.
a go-ahead sacrifice fly in
a two-run first inning, St. The U.S. plays the Domini-
Louis prospect Matthew can Republic on Tuesday at
Liberatore pitched one- West Palm Beach and closes
run ball for five innings the first round Wednesday
and manager Mike Scios- against Puerto Rico.
cia's U.S. team beat Nica-
ragua 7-1 Monday night in In Group B openers at West
the first game of its second Palm Beach, Venezuela beat
chance to qualify for the Cuba 6-5 as the Yankees'
Olympics. Robinson Chirinos, Milwau-
kee's Hernán Pérez and Oak-
Liberatore, a 21-year-old left- land's Carlos Pérez homered.
hander taken by Tampa Bay Canada blanked Colombia
with the 18th overall pick in 7-0.
the 2018 amateur draft who
is 0-3 this year at Triple-A The top two teams in each
Memphis, allowed five hits group advance to the super
with four strikeouts and a round on Friday and Satur-
walk. day, and first-round results
carry over. The top team
Brandon Dickson, who failed from the super round joins
to hold a ninth-inning lead Japan, Israel, Mexico and
against Mexico when the U.S. Frazier's sacrifice fly and ego Montes, who started on lowed with a two-run single South Korea at the Olympic
was three outs from qualify- Eric Fillia's RBI single built second, began heading home off Osman Gutierrez. baseball tournament, to be
ing at the Premier12 tourna- a 2-0 lead in the first against and was caught in a rundown. played in Japan from July 28
ment in November 2019, got 34-year-old lefty Carlos Tell- In the other Group A game, to Aug. 7 in Fukushima and
six outs, and Anthony Gose er. Mark Kolozsvary homered the Dominican Republic, Yokohama.
and Marc Rzepczynski three in the fourth and Filla added with Jose Bautista and Melky
apiece, combining for four Ben Alegria cut the gap to another run-scoring single in Cabrera in the starting lineup, Second- and third-place
innings of hitless relief. 2-1 with a run-scoring, bas- the sixth against Elvin Garcia won 5-2 over Puerto Rico. teams advance to a final
es-loaded groundout in the that made it 4-1. Luke Wil- Luis Liberato hit a tiebreak- qualifier in June in Mexico,
The U.S. had 14 hits. second that was turned into liams hit an RBI single in the ing homer and Emilio Boni- which will include Australia,
a double play when Juan Di- ninth and Jarren Duran fol- facio had a go-ahead single in Netherlands and Taiwan.

EURO 2020: Haaland, Ibrahimović among stars missing out

(AP) – One of the best players in final. Enrique said the 35-year-old Real appointing early exit from the 2018
the world will not be at the Euro- Madrid defender's lack of play re- World Cup, but the team has failed to
pean Championship. One of the world's best goalkeepers cently made it difficult for him to be shine in their absence.
Norway forward Erling Haaland also plays for a country which failed included in the Euro 2020 squad. Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitić didn't
is the biggest name missing from to qualify. Atlético Madrid keeper Jan even give his coach a choice, making
Euro 2020, because his country Oblak captains Slovenia, whose ab- With 180 games for Spain, Ramos has the decision himself. The 33-year-
failed to qualify for the tourna- sence also sees Atalanta forward Josip the most national team appearances old Rakitić retired from international
ment. Iličić miss out. for a European nation and had been soccer last year, shortly after he left
on track to break Egypt player Ahmed Barcelona and signed for Sevilla.
A host of other players who ply their INJURIES Hassan's world record of 184.
trade at Europe's biggest clubs will Sweden's greatest player — and one For Germany, coach Joachim Löw Croatia will also be without Borna
miss out for similar reasons, while of the world's top strikers — came out again left out Jérôme Boateng but Sosa, who has dual nationality with
several top players will also be absent of international retirement in March, recalled Thomas Müller and Mats Germany. The left winger thought
from the rescheduled tournament af- but 39-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimović Hummels. he might be playing for the German
ter getting injured this season. has been ruled out of the tournament national team at Euro 2020, but FIFA
after injuring his knee while playing Löw had dropped all three players as rules prevented him from switching
DIDN'T QUALIFY for AC Milan. part of his shakeup following the dis- nationalities.
Haaland was "really angry" when
Norway lost to Serbia in the playoff Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk
semifinals, denying the prolific strik- also injured a knee and won't return
er the chance to show off his skills in time for Euro 2020. Another Liv-
on one of the biggest international erpool center back, Joe Gomez, will
stages. miss out for England for the same
The 20-year-old Haaland has been reason.
sensational over the past few sea-
sons and his performances have seen Defending champion Portugal will be
him deemed the heir to Lionel Messi without forward Pedro Neto, while
and Cristiano Ronaldo. Haaland has record-breaking teenager Ansu Fati
scored 59 goals in 57 appearances for is out for Spain. The Barcelona teen-
Borussia Dortmund over the past two ager recently had a third surgery on
seasons. his troublesome knee.
Sergej Milinković-Savić netted two
goals for Serbia in that semifinal CHOICE
match against Norway but the Lazio
midfielder — one of the most excit- Spain coach Luis Enrique omitted
ing creative talents — will also miss veteran captain Sergio Ramos from
the tournament after his team lost to his squad for the tournament follow-
Scotland on penalties in the playoff ing a season plagued by injuries.