Under 12 World Baseball Cup

Havana, July 26 (RHC) - Cuba's under-12 age group squad suffered its second defeat today at the Baseball World Cup, held in the Taiwanese city of Tainan, when it fell 4-0 to Japan.

At the Asia-Pacific International Stadium (Aspac), Japanese starter Shotaro Hashimoto was in excellent form, pitched a complete game and only allowed three hits, gave up five strikeouts and conceded one base on balls.

The Japanese opened the scoreboard in the first inning with the run that would have been enough for the victory, with a triple by Taiki Toyama and a run-scoring hit by Shinnosuke Yoshizuka, against the pitches of starter and eventual loser Yan Carlos Ramírez, who also covered the entire route.

Japan and Mexico have a pair of consecutive wins to lead group B.

With this second loss, the team coached by Raul Rodriguez needs a win this Saturday against Mexico (10:30 p.m. Cuban time) to maintain its chances of advancing to the next phase.

Source: JIT