It all comes down to this. With their victories on Thursday in the semifinal round of the Caribbean Series in Caracas, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela clubs advanced to the tournament championship game, which is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Here’s how the two teams reached the series final:

Dominican Republic 8, Mexico 3
The D.R. punched its ticket to the Caribbean Series championship game with a convincing win over Mexico behind a two-run homer by Kelvin Gutiérrez and six strong innings from starter Esmil Rogers.

Mel Rojas Jr. hit a sacrifice fly in the first to get the D.R. on the board, and Gustavo Núñez made it 2-0 with an RBI single in the second. An Emilio Bonifácio double and a Henry Urrutia two-run single brought in three more in the fourth to make it 5-0. Mexico got to Rogers for two runs in the bottom of the fourth on Julian Ornelas’ RBI single followed by a Jasson Atondo sacrifice fly.

Gutiérrez’s two-run shot to left-center gave the D.R. some breathing room in the seventh. Ornelas capped Mexico’s scoring with a sac fly in the eighth, and the D.R. picked up its final run on a fielder’s choice in the ninth.

Keury Mella (one inning), Jesús Liranzo (one-third), Jonathan Aro (two-thirds) and Jairo Asencio (one) yielded just a run on two hits over the final three frames to clinch the D.R.’s trip to the series finale on Friday. Box score >>

Venezuela 7, Colombia 5
The host club of this Caribbean Series is headed to the championship game after defeating Colombia behind a big game from José Rondón, who went 2-for-4 with four RBIs and the biggest hit of the game: a two-run homer in the fifth inning that extended Venezuela’s lead to 6-3.

Venezuela jumped ahead early thanks to a two-run single by Rondón in the first inning. Gustavo Campero delivered an RBI double to get Colombia on the board in the third, but Venezuela had an immediate answer, loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the third. Though Rondón popped out, the next batter, Isaias Tejeda, was hit by a pitch to force in a run. That was followed by an Orlando Arcia sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.

With two outs in the fifth, Colombia rallied for two runs on a Campero RBI triple and a Francisco Acuna single to bring Campero around to score. But the bottom of that frame is when Rondón came through with his big homer, giving Venezuela some breathing room. Hernán Pérez added to the cushion with an RBI single in the eighth.

Those insurance runs would prove to be important, as Colombia didn’t go quietly, scoring two more in the eighth. Dilson Herrera delivered an RBI single and later scored on Fabian Pertuz’s double to make it 7-5. But Anthony Vizcaya came out of the bullpen for the final out of the eighth, then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to send Venezuela to the Caribbean Series title game. Box score >>

Caribbean Series championship game:

Venezuela vs. Dominican Republic, Friday, 6:30 p.m. ET

Third place game:

Mexico vs. Colombia, Friday, 1:30 p.m. ET