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The 1987 World Baseball Championship was the 41^st edition of the event and was the second to be held in Australia, this time with Melbourne as the main city. Division 1 had a major upset as 8-1 Colombia took the title over the United States at 7-2. It is a very rare back-to-back division title miss for the Americans, while it is back-to-back titles for the Colombians. Colombia has now made it to the elite eight 12 times. Division 2 had a surprise result as well with Haiti on top at 7-2, finishing one game better than China, Greece, Papua New Guinea, and Switzerland. It is the third-ever division title for the Haitians, who also advanced in 1980 and 1969. Chile secured Division 3 at 8-1, edging out 7-2 France. It is only the second-ever division title for the Chileans (1962). Division 4 champ Ukraine was the lone unbeaten team in the group stage at 9-0. It is their fifth division title and third of the 1980s.

A tight Division 5 saw Spain on top at 7-2, beating out 6-3 efforts by Panama and the Philippines. It is the fifth division title for Spain, who last advanced in 1984. Division 6 had a tie between Italy and Burkina Faso at 7-2. The tiebreaker prevented a first-time title for BF and gave the Italians their 10^th. D7 was also tight with last year’s runner-up Indonesia and Hungary tying at 7-2, while the Dominican Republic was 6-3. The tiebreaker gave the Indonesians a third straight division title and eighth overall. Defending world champ Canada and Brazil tied at 8-1 in a strong Division 8 with Paraguay one back. The tiebreaker ended the Canadian’s repeat bid and sent the Brazilians forward for the 21^st time.

In the Double Round Robin Group A, Chile took the top honor at 5-1 to advance to the semifinal for the first time. Spain and Indonesia tied at 3-3, while Ukraine was last at 1-5. The tiebreaker went to Spain to give them their second-ever semifinal appearance (1976). Brazil dominated Group B at 5-1 for their tenth semifinal berth. Italy took second at 3-3 to advance, while both Haiti and Colombia were 2-2. It was the fourth semifinal berth for the Italians, who last pulled it off in 1968.

Both semifinal series went all five games. Chile upset Italy, making the Chileans the 20^th unique nation to earn a spot in the World Championship. Brazil edged Spain 3-2 to give the Brazilians a fifth shot at the cup. Spain officially was third place and Italy was fourth; both matching their best-ever finish.



The 41^st World Championship was guaranteed to have a first-time champion. Brazil had gone 0-4 in their previous appearances, while Chile had never gotten this far. This also marked the first time two South American nations met in the finale. Brazil would prevail 4-1 to claim the world title, led by tournament MVP Ademir Rocha. A decent outfielder with Rio de Janeiro, the 26-year old made 21 starts with 27 hits, 15 runs, 4 doubles, 9 home runs, and 22 RBI. Best Pitcher went to Cuba’s Murray Rodriguez, an up-and-coming starter with Santiago. He pitched 10.1 scoreless innings with 15 strikeouts and two hits allowed.



Other notes: France’s Lorenzo Amaru struck out 22 in a complete game against the Czech Republic. Australia’s Riley Singleton became the fourth to hit for a cycle in the WBC, doing it against Kazakhstan. There were four no-hitters with the most dominant being a 18 strikeout effort by Australia’s Logan Mathews against Jamaica. The others were thrown by Spain’s Jacky Muro, Santiago Marroquin of the Dominican Republic, and Donte Parks of Jamaica. Panamanian Leonardo Salvador became the fourth to have a 20+ game hitting streak, getting to 21 between the last three WBCs.

Below are the updated all-time stats. The championship for Brazil puts them in striking distance of Mexico for the third most points accumulated.