LA PAZ, Mexico – After convincing victories by Cuba and the United States to conclude the round-robin of the 2014 U-18 Pan American Championship/WBSC Americas 2015 U-18 Baseball World Cup Qualifier, the stage is set for the world No. 1 and No. 3 to see who will be crowned U-18 champion of all the Americas (Caribbean, Central-, North- and South America) – baseball’s most fertile ground.
On Saturday, Cuba overpowered Canada 11-0 to terminate the affair after only seven innings and knock Canada into the bronze medal match with Mexico. (See game report by Baseball Canada)
Also on Saturday, the U.S. defeated Mexico 10-0 (7 inn.) and put up six runs in the bottom of the first inning to deflate an extremely energetic and packed host-nation crowd at Arturo C. Nahl Stadium. (See game report by USA Baseball)
The U.S. finishes the round-robin defeating every participating country in the nine-nation event to post a perfect 8-0 record.
Cuba finishes 6-2, having dropped matches to host Mexico and USA. Cuba continues to add the colour green into their officical jerseys, following the historical debut of the new colour-combination at this summer’s U-15 Baseball World Cup. Leadership from Cuba reported to the WBSC hat the newly incorporated green is intended to represent “hope for the world”.
The gold medal finale begins at 7:30 p.m. local time on Sunday in La Paz (Paris 4:30 a.m, Tokyo 11:30 a.m — Monday). USA’s left-hander Kolby Allard will get the start against Cuba.
Global audiences can view the contest via AYM Sports’ digital/mobile platforms at internetv.tv.
The U-18 Baseball World Cup and its continental qualifiers continue to be proven stages that unite the most talented players in the world. Past players who have represented their countries in IBAF’s 18U events include some of the biggest names currently in baseball (in no particular order): Yu Darvish, Yasiel Puig, Bryce Harper, Shin-soo Choo, Manny Machado, Clayton Kershaw, Aroldis Chapman, Brett Lawrie, Buster Posey and Masahiro Tanaka – and rising stars like phenoms Shohei Otani (101 mph / 162 km/h; 10 wins and 10 HR as DH in Nippon Professional Baseball — first player since Babe Ruth to accomplish such a feat) and Jorge Soler.
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