Havana, November 10 (RHC) – Cuba lost 6-4 to Great Britain in extra innings at the Soberanía National Stadium, during the last day of the group stage of the VI Under-23 Baseball World Championship in Nicaragua.
The loss ended the Caribbean team’s run in the first round on a sour note, as they managed only one win in five games and were eliminated from contention for the Super Round.
Both teams entered the game already eliminated from playoff contention, so the result will affect the win-loss record carried over to the consolation round, where the seventh through twelfth place positions will be determined.
The British team opened the scoring with two runs in the third inning, capitalizing on a defensive error and a hit-by-pitch, before stringing together three hits, including RBI singles by Tucker Stockman and Cole Leclair.
In the fourth, Royce Clayton Jr. extended the European lead with the first inside-the-park home run of the tournament, off a pitch from Cuban starter José Ignacio Bermúdez.
The right-hander pitched three and two-thirds innings, allowing three runs and striking out eight, raising his strikeout total to 17 and taking the lead in the tournament in that category.
Great Britain added another run in the fifth inning, this time against reliever Lee Andy Plumas, driven in by an infield single from Quinn Allen.
After four innings without finding an answer against starter Andrew Campbell, Cuba got on the board in the fifth with an RBI double by Anyelo Videt and staged a comeback in the sixth to tie the game.
A single by Rafael Álvarez sparked the rally, and Frank David González completed the comeback with a bases-loaded single that brought two runners home.
The tie held until extra innings, where the British again found openings to take the lead, with RBI singles by Stockman and Leclair off the losing pitcher, Kevin Hernández.
From the mound, Zac Sohosky secured the European victory with two and two-thirds scoreless innings.
With this result, Great Britain finished the qualifying round with a record of two wins and three losses, in fourth place in the group, while Cuba finished fifth with one win and four losses, only ahead of South Africa.
For the Cubans, the consolation round will now be the stage for one last chance to get back on track and leave the tournament with a different image than the one they projected in the qualifying stage.
