Mexico's baseball team is heading to Tokyo 2020

Mexico's baseball team

has classified into the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games !

Yesterday, the Mexican team defeated the U.S. and won the bronze medal during the Premier 12 , an international baseball championship featuring the 12 best national teams in the world, which is held by the World Baseball Softball Confederation ( WBSC ).

Mexico made history on November 17 by qualifying to the Olympic Games for the first time in history.

After the game, Juan Gabriel Castro said that he was “very happy about winning this game and earning the bronze medal. But I'm even more happy for the qualification for the Olympic Games . It’s the first time ever that Mexico will play Olympic Baseball , and I’m very proud of it.”

“I like this medal,” added Castro, showing his Premier12 Bronze Medal. “But next year we’ll come for the Gold Medal.”

When asked about next year’s Olympic Games , Castro said the Mexican baseball team will “keep getting ready, even better than what we did for this event. As I said a few days ago at the press conference, Mexico is growing, you will hear Mexico’s name a lot of times and you’ll see Mexico in a lot of tournaments.”

Castro added that for Mexico , it was a great tournament for how we fought in Guadalajara and here in Japan . Even when we couldn't win the title, that was our final goal, it’s been a great experience. I liked the tournament. A great organization in Guadalajara and here in Tokyo, two incredible hosts. This motivates everyone to keep participating in these kinds of events.”

However, Efren Navarro was Mexico 's hero during the game after he sent the Mexican team to the Olympics .

“Qualify for the first time for the Olympic Games is historic for Mexico ,” said Navarro.

Navarro added that “first we must credit the team. Our pitchers , the lineup , Clark, who homered to keep us in the game. Every at-bat is very important, I just tried to fight, to play for the team and thank god I could do it.”

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