Cuba put on a show in their first game at the I IBAF 15U Baseball World Championship in Mexico. Playing in Parral they dismantled Hong Kong 31-4 in five innings. Seven runs in the first, 12 in the third and ten in the fourth turned the game into a whopping blowout.

Aruba had a perfect start into the premier IBAF 15U Baseball World Championship. They crushed Germany 18-6 in seven innings. They scored in six of the seven frames, highlighted by a seven-run rally in the fifth. Germany’s defense helped, committing a whopping nine errors.

The USA overcame an early scare en route to a 13-3 victory over Chinese Taipei. The two-time champion erased a first-inning deficit to win their fifth game at the V Women’s Baseball World Cup in Edmonton, Canada. Playing at John Fry Park they scored in each frame between the second and the fifth to end the contest due to ten-run rule. Chinese Taipei is now 3-3 in the tournament, hoping to qualify for the semi-finals.

Australia keeps its chances alive to reach the semi-finals at the V IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup. On Wednesday they celebrated a lopsided 20-1 victory over Venezuela in a make-up game of Tuesday’s rainout at Telus Field. After both teams exchanged runs in the first, Australia blew things open with seven runs in the second.

Day seven at the V IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup in Edmonton, Canada started with a 14-6 victory of Venezuela over the Netherlands. The South Americans filled the scoreboard in each of the first six frames en route to their second victory in the tournament. The Dutch team rallied for six runs combined in the fourth and fifth, but couldn’t make up the deficit completely. It is their sixth loss in the sixth game.

Getting rained out on Tuesday, Team USA and Cuba met again for another try at John Fry Park one day later. The two-time champion celebrated a 9-1 win, which sounds more lopsided as it was. The United States needed until the fourth inning to break a scoreless try and didn’t blow the score open until the last two frames. They are now 4-1 in the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Edmonton. Cuba remains winless.

It was the first true pitcher’s duel at the V IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup in Edmonton, Canada. Japan shut out Venezuela 3-0 in a re-scheduled game from August 10. The defending champion allowed just four base runners all game for their fourth win in the tournament. Two runs in the second and one in the fifth provided the necessary run support. Venezuela dropped to 1-3 after the first leg of their doubleheader day.

Canada is remaining the lone undefeated at the V IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup in Edmonton. They dispatched the Netherlands by a score of 19-2 on Tuesday evening at Telus Field. After taking a quick lead, the Maple Leafs blew the game wide open with nine runs in the fourth, tying Japan’s inning high from prior in the tournament. The lone European team in the event avoided the shutout in the fourth. It was the fifth win in the fifth game for the hosts, while the Dutch team stays winless.

The Seattle Mariners have signed the 16-year-old left-handed pitcher Luiz Gohara to a seven-year minor league contract. He receives reportedly an $800,000 signing bonus, the largest for a player from Brazil ever. The southpaw comes from Sao Paolo and was scouted by MLB representatives since he was 14 years old.

While Cuba’s vaunted national team was reestablishing some much-needed credibility last month at the Haarlem Baseball Week, ex-patriot Cuban players were also continuing to make considerable noise on more-celebrated major league diamonds. Aroldis Chapman has finally begun to display that can’t-miss stardom many were touting a few years back, while Yoennis Céspedes has so far enjoyed a rather noteworthy if not eye-popping rookie campaign. At the same time veteran Liván Hernández has been busy tracking down several long-standing pitching milestones earlier owned by some of his pre-revolution Cuban countrymen. And most recently two largely unheralded newcomers (one a recent Cuban League “defector”) have now elevated to 169 the total number of athletes to reach the pinnacle of the major leagues from the baseball-loving island nation of Cuba.