They put up 11 total hits with eight of their 10 batters recording at least one hit each. Boston Red Sox players Wilson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu both led the way with two hits, along with Miami Marlins' Javier Sanoja.
Luis Arraez and Contreras both had two runs batted in, while the Venezuela bullpen didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit through seven innings of work. Starting pitcher Ranger Suarez got the win after giving up just one earned run on three hits in two innings of work.
Their next game will be against Israel on March 7th at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. The Netherlands' next game will come against the powerhouse Dominican Republic on March 8th at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Recap and highlights
Arraez didn't waste any time putting Venezuela on the board in the very first inning. After Ronald Acuna Jr. doubled in the team's first at-bat, Maikel Garcia got him over to third on a groundout.
Then, Arraez, one of baseball's best contact hitters, put one on the ground into left field to get the party started for Venezuela, scoring Acuna from third to go up 1-0.
In the bottom half of the first, Venezuela shortstop Andres Gimenez showed off the hops in what would've been a single, maybe more, from Didi Gregorius.
Gimenez finished 1-for-2 at the plate for the game with a run and a walk. Gregorius finished 0-for-3 with a run.
Then, it was the Netherlands' turn to get on the board.
Druw Jones, former No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft and the son of manager Andruw Jones, a recent Hall of Fame inductee, tied it all up in a similar fashion by hitting a groundball single into left field to bring in Hendrick Clementina all the way from second base.
Jones finished the game 1-for-3 with two RBI.
And just like that, the tie was broken in the very next inning as Venezuela went up 2-1.
Sanoja cranked a home run in what looked to be an impossible pitch to hit to deep left field, marking the country's first home run of the tournament.
Netherlands starting pitcher Antwone Kelly went on to pitch the following inning before being finished for the game, giving up two runs on four hits in three innings with one strikeout and one walk.
Both teams went three-up, three-down in the third inning and failed to score in the fourth as well.
With two outs and men on second and first, the Netherlands failed to tie it up after one of their stars, Ozzie Albies, grounded out to end the top half of the fifth. That's when Venezuela took complete control of the game.
Before not scoring against in their final three innings of at-bat, Venezuela tacked on four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The Netherlands had bases loaded with no outs at the top of the sixth inning, but only managed to score one run the entire rest of the way.
Jones would once again be the team's only man to bring in the run, but on a sac-fly following Chadwick Tromp's fly-out to make it two outs before Ray-Patrick Didder followed with a fly out of his own.
The Netherlands didn't record a single hit the rest of the way.
