Harwood Heights resident Jack Ryan delivered the game-winning hit on Saturday, Aug. 1, to lift the U.S. 12U national baseball team to a 6-5 victory over Cuba and propel it into the gold medal game at the U12 Baseball World Cup. The World Baseball Softball Confederation tournament is being held in Tainan, Taiwan.
With the score tied at 4 in the bottom of the fourth, Ryan came to the plate with two on and two out. He proceeded to single to center to drive in both base runners. Cuba scored a run in the fifth, but left two runners on base.
The U.S. (7-1) advanced to play Chinese Taipei in the final at 6:30 p.m. local time Sunday, Aug. 2 (5:30 a.m. CDT). Chinese Taipei handed the U.S. its only loss in the tournament, beating the Americans 11-6 on Friday, July 31. Chinese Taipei is undefeated.
Ryan, who will be a seventh-grader at Giles School in Norridge in the fall, has had an excellent tournament at the plate. Through the first six games he led the U.S. in batting average (.615), runs (11), hits (8), home runs (2), RBIs (9) and slugging percentage (1.231).
Twitter: @Ryan_Nilsson
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