Cuba open the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup against the Dominican Republic on Friday 25 September at Parque Kukulcán Álamo in Mérida, first pitch 15:00 local. Twelve nations, fifty games, ten days. Cuba have won this tournament six times — no country has more medals in it — but not since 2016, and they came home from Colombia in 2024 without one.
Two details in that opening paragraph are easy to get wrong in English, and both are worth stating plainly. The first pitch time is not the one most English-language listings are working from: the Pan American Baseball Confederation’s schedule release of 20 August had Cuba against the Dominican Republic at 2:30 p.m., and WBSC moved the Mérida slots on 31 August. And Cuba’s record in this event is usually reported as “former champions” with no year attached. The years are below.
Group A, and where it is played
Group A is played in its entirety at Parque Kukulcán Álamo, home of the Leones de Yucatán, in Mérida. World rankings are the WBSC/SHARP men’s rankings as given by WBSC when the groups were announced.
| Team | World ranking | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 1 | Reigning champions (2024) |
| Mexico | 6 | Hosts |
| Cuba | 10 | Champions in 2014 and 2016 |
| Dominican Republic | 12 | Cuba’s opening opponent |
| Germany | 18 | — |
| South Africa | 23 | — |
Group B — Chinese Taipei (2), the United States (3), Venezuela (5), Australia (11), Czechia (15) and Nicaragua (16) — plays at Estadio Beto Ávila in Cancún, home of the Tigres de Quintana Roo. Cuba will not meet any of them before the Super Round.
Opening day — and the start time that moved
Three games at Kukulcán Álamo on Friday 25 September. All times local; Mérida is UTC−6.
| Time | Game |
|---|---|
| 10:30 | Japan v South Africa |
| 15:00 | Cuba v Dominican Republic |
| 19:30 | Mexico v Germany |
WBSC revised the Mérida timetable on 31 August. Games at Kukulcán Álamo on 26 and 27 September now start at 13:00, 16:00 and 19:30; on 25 September and from 28 September to 3 October they start at 10:30, 15:00 and 19:30. The previous schedule had 10:30, 14:30 and 18:30 on every day. Cancún is unchanged.
How a team reaches the final
The top three from each group advance to the Super Round, played at Kukulcán Álamo from 1 to 3 October. The other three from each group go to the Placement Round at Beto Ávila in Cancún over the same dates.
One rule makes the opening game matter twice over: results between teams that advance out of the same group carry over into the Super Round. If Cuba and the Dominican Republic both reach it, Friday’s result travels with them. The top two after the Super Round contest the Championship Final in Mérida on Sunday 4 October; third and fourth play the Bronze Medal Game.
Cuba’s record at this age group
The competition has been contested at under-15 since 2012; before that it ran as the under-16 world championship, and WBSC counts both when it totals a nation’s titles. Cuba’s six are 1994, 1995, 1997, 2005, 2014 and 2016. Here is the U-15 era on its own.
| Edition | Host | Cuba |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Chihuahua, Mexico | Silver |
| 2014 | Mazatlán, Mexico | Gold |
| 2016 | Iwaki, Japan | Gold |
| 2018 | David and Chitré, Panama | No medal |
| 2022 | Hermosillo, Mexico | Silver |
| 2024 | Barranquilla and Cartagena, Colombia | No medal |
Writing before the 2022 final, which Cuba lost to the United States, WBSC put Cuba’s medal haul in the event at twelve and the United States’ at ten, the two most successful nations in its history. Cuba added a silver that night. Only four countries have won the title since the U-15 category was adopted in 2012 — Venezuela, Cuba, the United States and Japan — and all four are in Mexico.
Cuba’s wider international calendar is crowded just now. The senior and under-23 programmes are working towards the U-23 World Cup in Nicaragua in November — see Cuba Names 45 for the U-23 World Cup — while at home the 65th Serie Nacional opens on 4 October, the same day as the U-15 final. Our guide to the new two-zone format and the rosters as they are announced cover that. For the major league side of a record Cuban year, see Cubans in MLB 2026.
What we left out
We have not named Cuba’s manager. JIT, the INDER outlet, says the squad has been preparing at the Capitán San Luis stadium in Pinar del Río under Alexander Urquiola. Guerrillero, the Pinar del Río provincial paper, reporting the flag-presentation ceremony on 18 September, names Alfonso Urquiola Crespo — the manager of the Vegueros, and a different man — as the one who carried the national flag. Those two reports do not settle who is managing the team, so we have printed neither as manager.
We have not printed a roster, and we have not repeated a provincial report that Cuba’s domestic under-12, under-15 and under-18 championships were suspended this year because of the energy crisis. It may well be right, and it would be the context this tournament deserves, but we found it in one place and could not confirm it in a second before publishing.
Rankings, groups, venues, format and dates in this piece are from WBSC and the Pan American Baseball Confederation; Cuba’s title years are from WBSC and agree with the published medal tables.
Spotted an error in this article? Let us know and we'll correct it.
