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The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced this Tuesday the competitive schedule for the III Premier 12 Tournament, and Cuba will make its debut against the Dominican Republic as part of Group B located in Taiwan.
The team from the largest of the Antilles, three-time Olympic gold medalists and runners-up of the First World Baseball Classic (2006), will clash with the team from Quisqueya on Wednesday, November 13, at Tianmu Stadium, and the following day they will face South Korea at the same venue.
On Friday the 15th, they will enjoy a rest day before facing Australia on Saturday the 16th and then Japan, the reigning champions, on Sunday, at the mentioned sports park located in the Shilin District of the capital, Taipei.
Presumably under the guidance of manager Armando Johnson, the Caribbean team will close out the elimination stage against the local team at the Taipei Dome on Monday, the 18th.
In section A, Mexico, the United States, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Panama, and Puerto Rico will compete from November 10 to 14 at the "Panamerican Charros Stadium" in Jalisco, Guadalajara, and at the "Santa Teresita de Tepic" in Nayarit, both in Mexico.
According to the competitive system, the top two teams from each group will advance to the Super Round - from the 21st to the 23rd - at the majestic Tokyo Dome in Japan. The leaders of this stage will compete for the title, while the teams in third and fourth place will vie for the bronze medals.
The Premier 12, the main event of the WBSC, is the most significant baseball tournament of 2024. The 12 participating teams qualified based on the world ranking. Cuba, with 3,121 points, secured its spot by finishing in eighth place, with the deadline set for December 31, 2023.
The last edition, held in 2019, resulted in terrible outcomes for the island, as it was eliminated right from the start: it received two blowouts out of three possible, recorded 26 zeros out of 28 at-bats, failed to achieve a single extra-base hit, and its batters struck out 28 times while managing only four walks.
Four years earlier, in 2015, South Korea was crowned the champion of the first tournament.
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