Chihuahua (Mexico). The I IBAF 15U Baseball World Championship started with five games in Chihuahua, Cuauhtémoc and Parral, Mexico on Thursday. Brazil, Indonesia, Cuba, Aruba and Honduras celebrated lopsided victories on the first day of the inaugural tournament. In the evening the opening ceremony and the game between Mexico and Chinese Taipei in Chihuahua were rained out.
The postponement and the non-appearance of Bahamas are forcing organizers to update the schedule for the remainder of the first round at the 15U Baseball World Championship. All games with Bahamas will be canceled and the three pools are now set with five teams apiece. The game between Mexico and Chinese Taipei will be re-scheduled for Sunday, August 19 at 7pm local time. The opening ceremony with the five Chihuahua based teams will now be held on Saturday at 5.30pm.
Ticket holders for the Mexico-Chinese Taipei game will be reimbursed by the ticket office at Estadio Chihuahua, while ticket holders with Bahamas game tickets will be reimbursed by the Local Organizing Committee. More details will be communicated later.
Indonesia 0 – Brazil 21
Brazil had a near perfect start into the 15U Baseball World Championship, one-hitting Indonesia 21-0 on Thursday morning in Parral. Even a rain delay didn’t stop the South American team to dominate. They put on 19 hits in seven innings, scoring ten runs alone in the seventh. Lucas Sakay went 5-for-5 with four runs and six RBI. Indonesia managed just one hit against Geovanni Barbari and Rodrigo Mafoei, while committing eight errors on defense.
Ukraine 1 – Nicaragua 16
Nicaragua scored 13 runs combined in the second and third to rout the Ukraine 16-1 in seven innings. The European team only was able to avoid the shutout with a run in the fifth. Nicaragua scored three runs in the seventh to cap the offensive outburst.
Cuba 31 – Hong Kong 4
Cuba finished off Hong Kong by a whopping score of 31-4 in five innings. Seven runs in the first, 12 in the third and ten in the fourth gave the baseball powerhouse a cakewalk to the win. Hong Kong took advantage of some control issues by Cuban pitching to put four runs on the board. But it was too little to come back.
Germany 6 – Aruba 18
Aruba scored seven runs in the fifth to blow a close game open in an 18-6 victory over Germany. The European defense committed nine errors in the loss. Ross Ismail struck out nine batters in six innings to pick up the win, while driving in three RBI. Joward and Dijendrick Croes scored three runs apiece.
Honduras 12 – Lithuania 2
Honduras dominated Lithuania in a 12-2 seven-inning victory on Thursday in the first game in Chihuahua at the I IBAF 15U Baseball World Championship. They scored nine runs in the third to decide things quickly. Two runs in the seventh ended the contest early due to ten-run mercy rule.
Schedule
Friday, August 17, 2012
10:00 Italy – Lithuania (Chihuahua)
10:00 Nicaragua – Germany (Cuauhtémoc)
14:00 Indonesia – Cuba (Parral)
14:00 Venezuela – Ukraine (Cuauhtémoc)
15:00 Chinese Taipei – Honduras (Chihuahua)
19:00 Hong Kong – Argentina (Parral)
19:00 Lithuania – Mexico (Chihuahua)
