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| - The United States will host an eight-team Olympic baseball qualifying tournament in early June to decide one spot in Tokyo and two more in a last-chance qualifier at Taiwan. The World Baseball Softball Confederation announced details Tuesday for the Americas regional qualifier to be staged in Florida and the final qualifier in Taiwan on June 16-20. Americas Group A will include the US team, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Nicaragua while Group B features Cuba, Canada, Venezuela and Colombia. The two top teams from each group will advance into the Super Round, carrying over their result against each other and facing the two teams from the other group to create a final table. The winner advances to the Olympics, joining Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Israel. The second and third teams in the table qualify for the Taiwan event, which also features the hosts, China, Australia and the Netherlands. Baseball is returning to the Olympics for this year's Tokyo Games for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Games. js/rcw
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