The USA Baseball 18U National Team is moving on to the Super Round of the 2017 World Baseball Softball Confederation U-18 Baseball World Cup as one of two undefeated teams in the tournament.
Team USA beat Cuba, 8-1, on Tuesday in its last game of Group B pool play in Thunder Bay, Canada, to improve to 5-0 at the World Cup. Korea, in Group A, is also undefeated. Super Round play begins on Thursday, with the U.S. waiting on the results of two remaining games on Wednesday to have its schedule determined.
"Every game we play, we want to win and we've put ourselves in a good spot going into the Super Round," U.S. manager Andy Stankiewicz said. "We know that we have a lot of work to do, and we'll be facing the best three teams from the other bracket in the Super Round. They are in the Super Round for a reason: They are playing well, so we have some work in front of us."
Against Cuba, Team USA's pitching was dominant once again, with right-hander Cole Wilcox throwing seven innings and allowing only one unearned run on two hits. Team USA pitchers now have a 0.22 ERA over 41 innings pitched in the tournament -- just one earned run has been scored against them -- with 59 strikeouts and 12 hits allowed.
The U.S. scored all eight of its runs with two outs, with Alek Thomas (3-for-4, two RBIs) and Anthony Seigler (2-for-4, two RBIs) pacing the offense.
"Our mentality is just to keep on winning, no matter how we get it," Thomas said. "We are trying to do whatever we can to get the next win."