The Cuban under-12 baseball team secured its first victory in the VIII World Cup being contested in Chinese Taipei, defeating Germany 7-1 today.

The Antilleans, who suffered consecutive defeats against the hosts, Japan and Mexico, and lost all chance of reaching the Super Round to compete for a podium place, still have one pending match against Australia before moving to the consolation round to seek a position between seventh and twelfth.

In today’s match, they connected seven hits, one of them a double by substitute Iván Castillo, and benefited from an excellent pitching performance by Xavier García. He worked five innings with just one hit allowed and four strikeouts recorded to claim the win.

Also standing out offensively were Yordan Oseguera and Yan Carlos Ramírez with run-scoring singles, against rival pitching that conceded seven walks and suffered from three errors by their defence – though all runs were earned. Three runs were charged to the record of the losing pitcher, Luis Schloffel.

Japan leads Group A with four wins and no defeats, followed by Mexico (3-0) and Chinese Taipei (3-1). Australia and Cuba both have a 1-3 record, while Germany concluded the group phase with five losses.