Four teams remain in an annual tournament filled with national bragging rights on the diamond. On Wednesday, Cardenales de Lara from Venezuela takes on the Dominican Republic's Leones del Escogido in the Caribbean World Series Semifinals.
Cardenales is trying to make it back-to-back World Series wins for teams from Venezuela. Tiburones de La Guaira won it all last year in Miami, the first time since 2009 that a team from the country won the tournament. Cardenales advanced to the final four after splitting the four games in the round-robin, including a 10 decimation of the Japan Breeze on Tuesday.
The Dominican Republic has been the most successful nation in the CWS. Highlighted by Tigres del Licey's record 11 championships, the country has produced 22 tournament champions and three of the last five winners. However, Leones, who also went 2-2 in the opening round, has only one championship to their name, that coming in 1972.
Since the introduction of the championship game in 2013, both teams have only made it to the final once, as Cardenales lost in 2020 while Leones fell in 2013.
Leones won the opening game of the tournament against Cardenales last Friday.