Dominican Republic to host the U-18 Baseball World Cup Qualifier in 2026
Youth baseball in the Americas will have its major event on Dominican soil. The president of the Dominican Baseball Federation (FEDOM), Juan Núñez, together with the Minister of Sports, Kelvin Cruz, officially confirmed that the country will host the U-18 Baseball World Cup Qualifier. The sporting event will take place from October 22 to 29, 2026, bringing together the 12 best national teams on the continent.
The IPL Academy facilities, located in the municipality of Guerra, will serve as the main venue. The entire tournament schedule will be played there, from the group stage and the Super Round to the decisive medal matches.
Competition format and groups
The distribution of the teams for this edition of the tournament has been defined as follows:
- Group A: Dominican Republic, United States, Brazil and Curaçao.
- Group B: Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba and Nicaragua.
- Group C: Puerto Rico, Colombia, Panama and Canada.
The Dominican national team’s path will begin on Thursday, October 22, against Curaçao at 3:00 p.m. Subsequently, the national team will face Brazil on Friday the 23rd and will close its participation in the opening round against the United States on Saturday the 24th, maintaining the same time and venue.
The opening ceremony is scheduled for Thursday the 22nd at 2:30 in the afternoon, just before the host team takes the field to seek their first victory of the tournament.
Path to the gold medal
The classification system stipulates that the top two teams from each group will advance to the Super Round, scheduled from October 25 to 28. In this stage, the qualified teams will face each other, carrying over the results obtained against the rivals from their same group who also managed to advance.
For their part, the teams located in the third and fourth positions of each group will play a parallel qualifying round. Finally, the grand final for the gold medal will be held on Thursday, October 29 at 2:00 in the afternoon, while the bronze medal match will take place at 10:00 in the morning.
Transmission and coverage
Alofoke Deportes highlights the logistical effort to ensure that fans do not miss a detail of this event. The full broadcast of the tournament will be carried out through various television channels and digital platforms, allowing the Dominican public and the diaspora in the United States to closely follow the development of the future stars of professional baseball.
