Cuba will not be at the 2027 U-18 Baseball World Cup in China. A 5–0 defeat by Nicaragua on Saturday, 24 October, at the IPL Academy in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, ended their U-18 Pan American Championship in the group stage, and with it any chance of one of the four World Cup places the tournament awards. Cuba finished Group B with one win and two defeats; Venezuela and Nicaragua went through to the Super Round.
It is the second time in three World Cup cycles that Cuba’s under-18s have failed to qualify, and the second time Nicaragua have put them out. For a country that has won this world title eleven times, a total matched only by the United States, that is a record worth setting out in full. The game, the group and the history are below.
Nicaragua 5, Cuba 0
For five innings it was a pitchers’ game. Cuba’s left-hander Chrystoffer Sarría of Cienfuegos held Nicaragua scoreless on two hits through the fifth (JIT; Prensa Latina). The sixth undid Cuba. Luis García doubled, Cuba made an error and hit a batter, and Berman Moreno, pinch-hitting, singled in two runs (JIT; La Prensa, Managua). Nicaragua added three more in the seventh (Prensa Latina; La Prensa).
On the other side, the right-hander Emil Torrez pitched the whole game for Nicaragua: a shutout on seven hits with seven strikeouts (JIT; La Prensa). Cuba had seven hits to Nicaragua’s eight and did not score (Prensa Latina; La Prensa).
How Group B finished
Cuba’s three games were all close until the last one. They led Venezuela 4–2 going into the seventh inning of the opener and lost 5–4, then beat Mexico 5–4 in nine innings the next day. Our day-by-day account of the first two games, with sources, is in our report on the final 20.
| Date | Opponent | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday 22 October | Venezuela | L 4–5 | Lost after leading 4–2 into the seventh |
| Friday 23 October | Mexico | W 5–4 | Nine innings |
| Saturday 24 October | Nicaragua | L 0–5 | Complete-game shutout by Emil Torrez |
Venezuela and Nicaragua advance to the Super Round, which runs from 25 to 28 October, with the medal games on 29 October (JIT; Prensa Latina; La Prensa). Cuba drop into the consolation round for the lower places (JIT). The four World Cup places go to the teams that finish in the top four (Prensa Latina; WBSC Americas).
Not every report agrees on the details of the group table. JIT has Cuba fourth in Group B; we have not found the final group table published by WBSC, so we give Cuba’s record rather than a position.
Eleven titles, then a long fade
Cuba won the U-18 World Cup eleven times between 1984 and 2004 (Baseball-Reference Bullpen; Wikipedia). Since that eleventh title the medals have thinned out: bronze in 2008, 2010 and 2013, and nothing since. The two misses have both come in the last four years.
| Period or edition | Cuba |
|---|---|
| 1984–2004 | Eleven titles: 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2004 |
| 1988, 1989 | Silver |
| 1999, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2013 | Bronze |
| 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022 | No medal |
| 2023, Taiwan | Did not qualify: out in the group stage of the 2022 Pan American qualifier in Baja California, Mexico, after a 9–0 defeat by Nicaragua |
| 2025, Okinawa | Qualified; 2–3 in the opening round, no Super Round |
| 2027, China | Did not qualify: out in the group stage of the 2026 Pan American qualifier after a 5–0 defeat by Nicaragua |
The 2022 elimination is an uncomfortably close match for this one. Then, as now, Cuba went into their last group game needing to beat Nicaragua; then, the starter Darío Sarduy left a scoreless game after six innings on his pitch count and the bullpen gave up nine runs in the seventh (OnCuba; Pelota Cubana USA). Cuba’s manager that year, Severo Crespo, called it a failure for the delegation. JIT’s headline this time put it more quietly: the team is left without a World Cup place.
Our reading
This section is our analysis, not a claim made by any of the sources.
Six editions of the U-18 World Cup have now been played since Cuba’s last medal at this level in 2013, and Cuba will have been absent from two of the last three. For the country that owned this event in the 1980s and 1990s, the more telling number may be the gap rather than the misses: no Cuban team has reached a final since 2004.
The 2026 team was not outclassed. It lost one game it led 4–2 going into the seventh, won another in extra innings, and was level with Nicaragua for five innings in the third. It scored nine runs in three games. The margins were small; the result is the same as in 2022. Whether that says more about Cuba’s pipeline or about how much the rest of the region has caught up at this age is a larger question than one weekend in Boca Chica can answer, and we will not pretend it does.
What happens next
Cuba play out the tournament in the consolation round. The next national team in action is the U-23 side at the World Cup in Nicaragua in November; dates and the rest of the autumn programme are in our national teams calendar. We will add the Nicaragua result and Cuba’s final placing to the team report.
Sources
JIT, “Beisbol Sub 18 se queda sin cupo mundialista”, 24 October 2026: the score, Sarría’s five innings, the sixth inning, Torrez’s complete game, Venezuela and Nicaragua through, the consolation round.
Prensa Latina, “Cuba queda fuera de la Súper Ronda del Panamericano sub-18 de béisbol”, 24 October 2026: the date and venue, the run-scoring innings, hits, Cuba’s 1–2 record, four World Cup places.
La Prensa (Managua), “Panamericano Sub-18: Nicaragua blanquea a Cuba y avanza”, 24 October 2026: Torrez’s line, García’s double, Moreno’s two-run single, the Super Round dates and the medal games on 29 October.
OnCuba and Pelota Cubana USA, November 2022: Nicaragua 9, Cuba 0 at the 2022 qualifier, Sarduy, Crespo.
Baseball-Reference Bullpen, “U-18 Baseball World Cup”, and Wikipedia, “U-18 Baseball World Cup” and “2023 U-18 Baseball World Cup”: titles, medals and the 2023 field.
Earlier results: JIT, CiberCuba and Vanguardia (Mexico), 22–24 October 2026, as cited in our team report.
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