The penultimate day of the WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup confirmed the final positions from 5-12 with just the final between Cuba and France and the bronze medal game between Türkiye and Mexico still to play.
China confirmed their spot in fifth place with Chinese Taipei finishing sixth. The Placement Round was also completed with Ghana, Tunisia, Korea, Australia, Malaysia and Zambia finishing in the positions seven to 12 respectively.
Competition day number five gave us six games and a history moment as Mexico took one match against Cuba. Can France also surprise Cuba and can Mexico beat home team Türkiye and take 3rd place? We will see that tomorrow.
The first teams to hit the field were China and France. But we need to mention the game between Cuba and Mexico. Mexico is the first team who were able to take away a match from Cuba on the world stage! ”Very emotional and excited! We worked as a team and we are more than ready to bring a medal to our country tomorrow.” SANTOS VALENZUELA Jesus Javier captain of Mexico after the match. Mexicanos won the second match in the second extra-inning 7-6 but had to admit the superiority of Cubanos in the best of 3, 1-7, 7-6, and 1-3 for Cuba. If he expected such results so far at the World Cup: ”Of course, this is why we have worked very hard in our country and we are done for big things”
As mentioned first game was between the European team France and the Asian team China. Red Dragon took the first match 4-1. No. 2 team in the world rankings France had to work hard to win the game. The second and third match finished with a close battle 4-3, 4-3 for the Les Blues.
The second game in the Super round of the day was a game between home team Türkiye and Chinese Taipei. This was the only game today in a super round that was over in 2 matches. Türkiye couldn’t find the form they had in previous days and lost to Chinese Taipei 2:0 (6-2, 9-3)
In the placement round, we saw the last games of the tournament for teams Australia vs Tunisia, Zambia vs Ghana, and Malaysia vs Korea. As two games in the morning session, we also saw 2 games in the afternoon with 3 matches. Tunisia won over Aussies 1-11, 3-1 and 1-6. In an African match up Zambia beat Ghana 0-8, 8-5, and 2-6. The last match of day 5 finished with a score 6-2, 3-4 and 8-2 for Korea