Palestine punches its ticket to West Asia Baseball Cup final

Pakistan or India will meet Palestine in the championship game on Wednesday

Yunis Halim pitched a complete game and his offense gave him plenty of support in today’s 17-3 victory over Iran in the semifinals sending Palestine to the West Asia Baseball Cup final for the second straight time.

Palestine’s opponent will be decided tomorrow when India and Pakistan meet in their semifinal game. Palestine lost to Pakistan in the final of this tournament in 2023, so we could be in for a rematch. Palestine defeated India in their only official match to open the tournament, last week.

Rumsey Yasin continued to be a thorn in every pitcher’s side. He added 4 more hits and drove in 4 runs in today’s win. Three of his teammates hit homers—Tariq Suboh, Dylan Ahmad and Syam Lafi.

Suboh’s home run was his second of the tournament and third as a member of the Palestinian Baseball & Softball Federation. Ahmad’s was his first of a ranked game, but second in a Palestine uniform. Lafi’s was his first ever as a member of the team.

During Halim’s 7 innings of work he struck out 10 batters and none of the 3 runs that scored were earned. Manager Oney Guillen saved Halim’s arm for this exact moment and things went as scripted. The rest of the team’s pitching staff is ready and well rested headed into Wednesday’s finale.

Through four games Palestine has outscored its opponents by 40 runs. The only concern has been the mistakes on defense. 17 errors have been committed by Palestine during the tournament. Most of the runs allowed have been unearned.

Palestine will presumably have pitching and offense on their side in the championship game, but if they don’t settle down and play a clean game it could cost them the cup.

I expect Brent Powers will start Wednesday’s game no matter who the opponent is.