USA beat Japan, Cuba shut out The Netherlands, 2 games cancelled in Day 2 of the U-18 Baseball World Cup

The classic match up between the super powers USA and Japan was worth the wait in Thunder Bay. The talent display saw the defending champions shut out the rivals. In Baseball Central Cuba overcame The Netherlands to stay undefeated.

USA pitching dominated Japan in a 4-0 win. Japan staff was quite as good and combined an impressive 23 strike outs.

USA got on the scoreboard in the top of the second. Right fielder Kelenic led off with a double and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Nakamura on a pick off attempt. With one out and a 2 strike count, first baseman Triston Casas took starter Kawabata third pitch deep over the left field fence for a 2 run homer. After catcher Mc Nair Seigler walked, the umpires were forced to suspend the game because of heavy rain.

As the game resumes, Kawabata strikes out left fielder Thomas and shortstop Turang.
USA starter Marceaux doesn’t come back after the rain delay and left hander Ryan Weathers takes the mound. To end the second inning, he relies on a spectacular diving catch by center fielder Siani.
Kawabata is under pressure in the third as he walks Siani and second baseman Young reaches on an infield single. Then the hard throwing left hander strikes out the side to end the inning.
When he gets Turang on strikes to end the top of the fourth, Kawabata collects his tenth strike out of the night.

USA score their third run in the fifth hardly putting the ball in play. Siani reaches, after striking out, on a wild pitch. Young bunts him to second and Siani runs all the way to home plate as Gorman strikes out and Nakamura throws to first to get the out and superstar to be Kiyomiya doesn’t realize Siani is trying to score.
With 2 outs, Kawabata delivers back to back walks to Kelenic and designated hitter Dieter. Then he gets out of the jam his way: striking out Casas with a blistering fastball on the outside corner.

Kawabata got on strikes 15 of the 17 outs of his game (Christian J Stewart)

Kawabata game is over after he puts Turang in scoring position with an error and allows the fourth american run on a base hit by Siani. As he leaves the game, the number of strike outs has grown to 15: this means that defense had to get only 2 outs for him. Reliever Taura takes it from there and strikes out Gorman to end the inning.

Weathers cruises through Japan line up, allowing just one hit and a walk over 7 innings and striking out 8. Ginn takes over for the ninth showcasing some true heat and an off the table breaking ball.

Weathers dominated Japan for 7 innings(Christian J Stewart-WBSC)Cup of Baseball at Port Arthur Stadium in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The Netherlands played a brave game, but Cuba came away with a 3-0 win.

Starters Cardenas and Ter Beek dominate the first 4 frames. Cuba gets the lead in the bottom of the fifth as center fielder Roidel Martinez triples to score third baseman Yuri Fernandez, who had reached on the first walk delivered by knuckleballer Ter Beek.
Cuba adds a run in the seventh. Shortstop Gonzalez singles, than advances on a ground out, reaches third on a wild pitch and scores on a base hit by Martinez.
An error by third baseman Apostel costs The Netherlands another run in the bottom of the eigth.
Rafael Sanchez relieves Cardenas (winner) with one out in the seventh to record the last 8 outs of the game and earn the save.

Tromp of the Netherlands slides into Cuba third baseman Yuri Fernandez (James Mirabelli-WBSC)

Rain disturbed the whole Day 2 of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup and 2 games were cancelled: Canada-Nicaragua at Port Arthur and Mexico-South Africa at Baseball Central. They will be likely played on the rest day, but an official decision has not been announced yet

Maintenance crew did a great job to get 4 games played in Thunder Bay