The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced this Tuesday the competitive schedule for the III Premier 12 Tournament, and Cuba will 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 medalist and runner-up at the I World Classic (2006), will clash with the Quisqueya team on Wednesday, November 13, at the Tianmu Stadium, while the following day they will face South Korea at the same venue.
On Friday 15, they will enjoy their rest day to face Australia on Saturday 16 and Japan, the current champion of the competition, on Sunday, at the aforementioned sports park located in the Shilin District of the capital Taipei.
Presumably under the guidance of manager Armando Johnson, the Caribbean squad will conclude the elimination stage against the local team at the Taipei Dome on Monday, the 18th.
On the other hand, in section A, Mexico, United States, Venezuela, Netherlands, Panama, and Puerto Rico will compete from the 10th to the 14th of November at the "Charros de Jalisco Pan American Stadium" in Guadalajara and at "Santa Teresita de Tepic" in Nayarit, both Mexican cities.
According to the competitive system, the top two teams in each group will advance to the Super Round - taking place from the 21st to the 23rd - at the majestic Tokyo Dome in Japan. The leaders of this stage will play for the title, while the third and fourth-place teams will compete for the bronze medals.
The Premier 12, the main event of the WBSC, is the most relevant baseball tournament of 2024. The 12 participating teams qualified through the world ranking. Cuba, with 3,121 points, secured its spot by occupying the eighth position as of the cutoff date of December 31, 2023.
The last edition, organized in 2019, left terrible results for the island, as it was eliminated right at the beginning: it received two shutouts out of three possible, they hung 26 out of 28 zeros on them, did not achieve any extra-base hits, and their batters struck out 28 times, with only four walks.
Four years earlier, in 2015, the first championship was won by South Korea.
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