The Bahamas has dropped out of the World Baseball Challenge.
Tournament chairman Rick Pattie made the announcement late Sunday night. Pattie said "financial shortfalls" were behind the decision.
"Theodore Sweeting, president of BBA, sent his regrets at the short notice," Pattie said in an email to The Citizen. "WBC is actively searching for a short notice replacement in the international baseball community, reaching out to Curacao, Colombia, Nicaragua, Poland and Croatia. Only Croatia has declined at this time."
If no replacement for the Bahamas can be found, the WBC will go ahead as a four-team tournament. Clubs that have confirmed their participation are Japan, Canadian Sidearm Nation, the Thurston County Generals of Olympia, Wash., and the Kamloops Sun Devils. The format would be a double round-robin which would see the winner get a bye to the final and the fourth-place finisher eliminated. The second- and third-place clubs would play in a semifinal.
"We look forward to some great baseball," Pattie said.
Tournament passes are available through Ticketmaster. Single-game tickets will go on sale Aug. 2 and will be available at Citizen Field from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
