Cuba walks it off against Panama, stays in medal race at U-23 Baseball World Cup

After two tough losses to open the Super
Round, Cuba’s chances at playing for a medal on Saturday rested on their finalSuper Round game. Win, and hope remained alive.

Mission accomplished.

World No. 11 Cuba rallied from deficits three times, including a margin of 5-0 midway through their Friday game to stun No. 13 Panama with a 9-8 walk-off win in extra innings at Estadio Sonora. With the result, Cuba pulled even with Panama at 2-3 for fourth place on the Super Round table with two more games left to be played on Friday in Hermosillo.

Halfway through Friday’s contest, Panamalooked to be cruising to a second win in three Super Round games thanks to fiveruns scored on three big hits. Rhandall Sanchez staked his team to a 2-0 leadwith a two-run homer to left in the second. Erick Mordock drove a ground-ruledouble to left to plate a run in the third, and in the fourth, Adrian Monterosingled up the middle to plate two more.

Cuba not only trailed by five runs, ithad only tallied two hits before the fourth.

In that fourth inning, the bats arrived.
Cuba sent 10 batters to the plate and stormed back to tie the game with fiveruns. Rodoleisis Moreno delivered a bases-clearing double to get his team onthe board with three runs while Guillermo Garcia singled to left-center tobring home a fourth tally and Loidel Chapelli came across with the tying run ona two-out fielding error by Panama third baseman Enoc Watts.

Panama pulled ahead in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Joshwan Wright, but with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Cuba levelled the score again on a Rangel Ramos sacrifice fly to force extra innings.

In the eighth, Panama took advantage ofthe international tiebreak rule to score a pair of runs Jason Pattersonsingling home a run and Sanchez scoring on a fielder’s choice off the bat ofAdrian Montero.

Undeterred facing an 8-6 deficit, Cuba mounted its final rally. With one out and the bases loaded, Ramos scored on a wild pitch charged to James Gonzalez, and the home team was underway. Moreno came across on a fielder’s choice as Garcia beat out a potential double play ball hit to second. With two gone, Yuddiel Gonzalez sent his team into jubilation by lacing a walk-off single to right-center to score Miguel Gonzalez.

"I always try to stay positive when I step to the box," commented Gonzalez after the game. "This is what helped me get the hit."

Cuba’s rally gave the team a 2-3 Super Round record while dropping Panama to 2-3. The sides now await the results of Friday’s afternoon contest between Venezuela (3-1) and Chinese Taipei (1-3) and the night game between Colombia (3-1) and Mexico (2-2) to determine Saturday’s bronze medal and World Championship Game matchups.