Cuba beat Chinese Taipei, claim second WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup title
27/09/2025 3 Minute Read

Cuba beat Chinese Taipei, claim second WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup title

Defending champions Cuba beat Chinese Taipei in the final after Venezuela beat Mexico in the bronze medal game.

Defending champions Cuba proved too good for a spirited Chinese Taipei team with a (5-4, 13-3) in the final of the WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup Nayarit 2025 in Tepic, Mexico on Saturday.

After three days of pool play, Round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals, Saturday brought the end to a tournament which was highlighted by outstanding competitive play, an electric atmosphere and great spirit amongst all teams - especially the WBSC Refugee Team, who represented Syria.

While there looked to be some potential pretenders to Cuba’s crown, in the end, the 2023 champions proved too classy once again. After overcoming Mexico in Friday’s semifinals which saw the world No. 1 drop their first set of the tournament, there was some thought about whether Chinese Taipei, who finished sixth two years ago and had beaten Venezuela in the other semifinal, could hold their nerve to claim a title their form potentially justified.

In the end, the class of a champion is permanent, and Cuba claimed their second youth title to add to the two “senior” Baseball5 World Cup titles in their trophy cabinet.

In a final played in front of a raucous crowd, the first set saw Chinese Taipei led 3-0 by the top of the third before Cuba scored four themselves in the bottom half. Both teams scored one each in the fourth before Cuba wrapped up the first set 5-4.

After holding off Chinese Taipei in the first set, Cuba had wind in their sails and scored five in each of the first two innings of the second set to Chinese Taipei’s one before sealing the second set 13-3. Cue the celebrations.

In the bronze medal game, Venezuela managed to beat Mexico (5-3, 3-2). It was Venezuela's first ever Baseball5 medal on their debut appearance at youth level after two fourth-placed finishes in the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup. Mexico, bronze medallists from the Youth World Cup two years ago, were cheered off the court in emotional scenes.

Earlier, the first game of the day saw world No. 2 Japan beat European champions Lithuania (7-0, 15-5) to finish 7th and 8th respectively. Both sides were appearing in the WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup for the first time after their "senior" sides had competed in both editions of the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup. Japan picked up two silver medals behind Cuba in the open category while Lithuania had finished eighth last year and 11th in 2022.

In the playoff for 11th & 12th positions, Puerto Rico were too strong for Tunisia, winning (10-4, 12-2) to finish 11th in their first appearance in a WBSC Baseball5 World Cup, either youth or open categories. Tunisia had finished eighth two years ago in Türkiye when there were 12 teams.

In the playoff for 5th and 6th, Kenya claimed a thrilling (0-1, 7-5, 5-4) win over Türkiye to record their best ever finish in a WBSC World Cup having surpassed their 8th place result at the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup Mexico City 2022.

Meanwhile, last edition's silver medallists France repeated their European Championships bronze medal game result last year by beating Spain (5-0, 5-7, 9-2) In the playoff for 9th and 10th.

Key links

WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup 2025 News

Categories: Baseball5 , Featured news , Youth Baseball5 World Cup

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