"Insane" pitching and defence leads USA to WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2025 title

There are times in international baseball when the statistics and technical analysis don't tell the same story and the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2025 presented by RAXUS is one of those cases.

For example, the number of errors won't necessarily tell you which team has the best defence, especially if the sample size is made of as few as three games, as in the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2025 presented by RAXUS Super Round. The numbers indicate that USA committed five errors in the three Super Round games, however USA won because they had the best pitching staff and the best defence.

To say it like All-World Team shortstop Aiden Ruiz, the quality of USA's pitching and defence was "insane".

Ruiz was behind the double play in the bottom of the third, which was a game-changer in the final against Japan.

In the Super Round, USA allowed only three earned runs. Korea was even better. Their pitchers allowed only two runs and two walks in three games. However, as we mentioned, the small sample is not adequate for statistical analysis.

Leaving the numbers aside for a moment, what the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2025 said is that power hitting this time wasn't a factor. The 12 teams combined for only five home runs.

"What happened is that the two fields were big and the weather didn't help, since it was very often blowing in," said USA manager Rick Eckstein after the final. "Had the wind blown out, we would have seen more home runs. As for us, we never played in favourable wind conditions."

The numbers shape an interesting picture if we consider the whole tournament. Over nine games, USA had the best pitchers, as they posted a team earned run average as low as 0.57 and allowed only 14 walks. Korea had a 1.07 ERA and allowed 18 walks. Japan had a better ERA than Korea (0.98), but allowed 24 walks.

USA also had the best offence with a batting average of .359, followed by Korea (.347) and Japan (.271) and committed 15 errors.

Korea (4) and Japan (5) committed fewer errors than USA (10). However, numbers will only tell us that Aiden Ruiz, in the bottom of the third, manufactured two outs out of 21 that USA needed to win the final.

While Chinese Taipei didn't seem to be in the same league as USA, Japan and Korea with their pitchers combining for a 2.44 ERA with 27 walks and batting .255, they did do something that the statistics won't explain. They came together as a team and played their best baseball when the bronze medal was at stake.