TAINAN, Taiwan – The U-12 Nicaraguan National Team defeated the Cuban National squad, 4-0, in a game that was dominated by pitching, with 18 combined strikeouts.
Nicaragua starter Elian Rayo kept Cuba’s bats silent, using a mixture of pitches to register nine strikeouts and reduce Cuba’s heavy hitters to only one hit over his 5 1/3 innings of service.
Cuba starter Oscar Pinera was equally effective in his five innings on the mound, racking up seven strikeouts, while only allowing one earned run.
Nicaragua jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first without putting the ball on the bat. Pinera issued two walks and made two errant throws – one at first in a pickoff attempt and the other on a fielder’s choice, which gifted the only runs Rayo and Nicaragua would need.
The Cuba-Nicaragua contest is the first of the Super Round, which brought together the top three nations from Groups A and B from the Opening Round.
The win for Nicaragua improves their record to 2-1 among among Super Group nations and remains in full contention to claim a spot in Sunday’s U-12 World Championship finale.
Cuba’s record drops to 1-2 in the Super Round.
Thursday’s schedule and results (as the time of writing):
Nicaragua 4 Cuba 0
14:30: Venezuela (0-2) vs. United States (2-0)
18:30: Japan (0-2) vs. Chinese Taipei (2-0)
Head-to-head results have carried over from the Opening Round, The top two nations in the Super Group will compete for the U-12 World Championship on Sunday, 2 August at 18:30.
In total, 50 games are being staged in Tainan for the III WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup.
For the full standings, schedule, ‘live’ play-by-play, stats, results and box scores.
