Cuba’s debut at LLWS showed a lot of promise
Trending
In terms of debuts, having Japan as your first-ever Little League World Series opponent can be daunting for anyone. Between 1997 and 2019, Japan has finished 18 series inside the top-3 and won it all eight times.
But Cuba was ready for the task, doing more than just hang around as it went into the final inning with a very realistic chance of winning. While it ultimately fell short with its debut ending imperfectly, there was still plenty to be proud of as a member of the Cuba coaching staff and fandom.
"I'm very proud of what my what my kids are doing on the field," said Cuba manager Vladimir Vargas through a translator.
Despite producing MLB talent through the years, Cuba wasn't added to the Little League's roster of International teams featured in the tournament until 2019 when Little League and the Cuban Baseball Federation had a partnership to bring Little League to Cuba.
Cuba, Puerto Rico and Panama were placed in a three-team rotation when the field expanded to 10 International teams where two of the three regions would be granted automatic entry while the other played through a region. Cuba played in the Caribbean regional in both 2019 and 2022, falling just short of reaching the series each time.
It was granted automatic entry for 2023, and here they are.
Despite it being the country's first time in the Series, there wasn't much the coaching staff was worried about.
Though it was tough to predict how this team would perform against the best International teams in the world, the team that eliminated it in the 2022 Carribean region championship, Curacao, ultimately fell one game short of a World Series title.
"I know that my team is a good one," said Vargas through a translator. "They're like warriors when they're on the field so that's why I'm very comfortable with this thing."
It had no issues dealing with the big crowd either, which broke 6,000 people at Volunteer Stadium on Wednesday.
"This is the largest crowd (they've played in front of)," said Vargas through a translator. "But in Cuba they play with full stadiums, and they are prepared for that, so I think that does not affect the game."
Both those points of confidence showed in their contest against Japan, where it proved very competitive and didn't shy away from the big moments. Against a talented offense that averaged nine runs per games in its regional, Cuba's defense allowed just one hit and one run in the first.
"I'm very pleased with the way the three pitchers played (on Wednesday) and though Gurriel maybe had some control issues in some times, the team made the place to keep him out of that," said Vargas through a translator.
Going forward, the first-time Little League World Series attendees have a long road ahead, but considering it kept things close against a consistent powerhouse in Japan, there's a decent chance it could make an interesting run.
It'll have to find ways to have more success offensively, both to attribute to the scoreboard and help with confidence. That's one thing Vargas was not expecting heading into the game, as he was confident his team would produce offensively.
"They had two great pitchers on the mound today," said Vargas through a translator, referring to Japan. "We're going to be looking at what we did wrong today and try to work on that. We're here to play baseball and we're going to be playing game by game."
Its next game is set for this afternoon, where it will face Australia in an elimination contest at Volunteer Stadium.