The Cuban Under-18 baseball team was eliminated from the World Cup of that category after losing 5-0 to Nicaragua on Sunday in the Pan American Championship being held in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, as reported by the sports media JIT.
The defeat closed off any possibility of qualifying for one of the four spots available for the world event in the category, scheduled to take place in Pingtan, China, and left the team out of the Super Round of the continental tournament.
The team led by the villaclareño Alexei Moré finished the group stage with a record of one win and two losses, placing fourth in Group B, behind Venezuela and Nicaragua, who advanced to the next stage.
The Nicaraguan Emil Torrez was the standout performer of the game: he pitched a complete seven innings, struck out seven batters, and allowed no runs, despite Cuba connecting seven hits without being able to turn them into runs.
For Cuba, the left-hander Chrystofer Sarría took the mound, dominating the opposing offense during the first five innings, allowing just two hits.
However, in the sixth inning, Nicaragua broke the tie. After a double by Luis García, Moré called in reliever Luis Daniel Rodríguez, who could not contain the opposing push: an error by the shortstop, a hit batter, and a single by substitute Berman Moreno allowed for the two runs that proved decisive.
The Cuban offense, despite its seven hits, was unable to score at any point during the game.
The path of Cuba in the tournament began with a 5-4 loss to Venezuela last Wednesday, when the team entered the seventh inning with a 4-2 lead but was overtaken. They then bounced back with a 5-4 victory over Mexico in nine innings, thanks to the tiebreaker rule of the WBSC, but the setback against Nicaragua ultimately dashed their hopes.
The elimination adds to a streak of unfavorable results in the lower categories of Cuban baseball. In September, the Under-15 team also missed the World Cup in its category in Mérida, Mexico, after losing 3-2 to Germany.
The structural context worsens the situation: the National Baseball Commission suspended the national championships for the U-12, U-15, and U-18 categories in May due to the energy crisis and the lack of fuel for interprovincial transportation, replacing them with provincial physical and technical tests.
Cuba is historically the most decorated nation in the U-18 World Cup with 11 titles, although the last one was in 2004. Since 2017 —when it finished sixth— it has not managed to qualify for the world tournament, missing out on the editions of 2019, 2022, and 2023. With its elimination in this Pan American Championship, the streak will extend at least until 2027, totaling four editions without participating in the global event of this category.
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