Team USA Wins Gold At 2025 18U WBSC World Cup

Image credit:
Grady Emerson (Tracy Proffitt/Four Seam Images)

Team USAâ€s 18U national team beat Japan 2-0 in the finals of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) World Cup finals on Sunday.

The championship is the 11th all-time for Team USA, tying the program with the 18U national team from Cuba. It is also the 28th World Cup medal for the Americans—good for eight more than the next-best country. 

Righthander Coleman Borthwick threw a complete-game shutout in the final game, continuing a tournament-long run of dominant pitching from the Americans. 

Team USA placed four players on the All-World team:

• Catcher Will Brick hit .333 with three doubles and a triple while starting seven games.
• Third baseman Grady Emerson—the top-ranked high school player in the 2026 class—started all nine games at the hot corner and produced a .949 OPS as the teamâ€s leadoff hitter.
• Shortstop Aiden Ruiz led the tournament with 11 hits and managed a .379 average hitting behind Emerson in the two-spot while providing key defensive work.
• Lefthander Gio Rojas was named to the All-World team after going 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and one complete-game shutout against Korea.

As a team, the Americans posted a tournament-best 0.57 ERA with 74 strikeouts and 14 walks. Opposing batters hit just .126 against Team USA and scored only five earned runs in 61 innings.

While Rojas was named to the All-World team for his efforts, lefthander Carson Bolemon was equally dominant in a pair of starts. He threw 11 total innings, struck out 17—which ranked third among all pitchers—walked just two and didnâ€t allow a run in either outing. 

Righthander Matthew Sharman joined Borthwick, Rojas and Bolemon as the fourth pitcher to make multiple starts for Team USA. He posted a 0.70 ERA across 10 innings with eight strikeouts, two walks and just one earned run allowed. 

The 25 hits that Team USAâ€s pitching staff allowed was the fewest in 18U National Team history, and the overall 0.57 ERA was the second-best in the programâ€s history. The starting staff for the Americans turned in a minuscule 0.14 ERA.

While pitching was crucial to Team USAâ€s success, the team also tied Australia for the best overall OPS (.797) of the field. The Americans were second to the Australians with a .308 average, first with a .438 on-base percentage and ranked second—again behind the Australians—with a .359 slugging percentage.

Emerson (11), Ruiz (11), Borthwick (10) and Brick (10) each got into the double digits with total bases. Emerson led the team with eight walks and also had three hit by pitches, while center fielder Anthony Murphy led the team in steals and went 6-for-6 on the bases. 

Collectively, Team USA stole 15 bases, the most of any team, and was caught stealing just one time. 

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