2026 World Baseball Classic qualification - Pool A
Pool A of the 2026 World Baseball Classic qualification tournament was held at the Taipei Dome in Taipei, Taiwan between February 21-25, 2025.
The tournament consists of a round-robin, with each team playing each other once. After the six games, the first-placed team will qualify for the final tournament, while the second and third-placed teams will play in a seventh game for the second and last spot in the main tournament.[1]
Teams
| Team | Confederation | Last WBC qualification appearance |
Last WBC appearance |
WBSC Rankings[2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Chinese Taipei
|
WBSC Asia | 2013 (qualified) | 2023 (5th in Pool A) | 2 |
 Nicaragua
|
WBSC Americas | 2023 (qualified) | 2023 (5th in Pool D | 16 |
 Spain
|
WBSC Europe | 2023 (did not qualify) | 2013 (15th) | 24 |
 South Africa
|
WBSC Africa | 2023 (did not qualify) | 2009 (16th) | 31 |
Standings
Opening round
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | GF | GA | GD | PCT | GB |
|---|
Second-place playoff
| Date | Local Time | Road Team | Score | Home Team | Inn. | Venue | Game Time | Attendance | Boxscore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 25, 2025 | 19:00 | Opening round 3rd place | – | Opening round 2nd place | Taipei Dome |
Matches
Opening round
South Africa vs Nicaragua
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Nicaragua |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | ||||||||||
| WP: Bryan Torres (1–0) LP: Dean Jacobs (0–1) Umpires: HP – Evin Johnson, 1B – Scott Costello, 2B – Ik Soo Kim, 3B – Yoshiharu Yamaguchi Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Nicaragua defeated South Africa 2-1 in extra innings on a walkoff single from catcher Ronald Rivera.[4] In the 7th inning, South Africa successfully pulled off a hidden ball trick, tagging out Freddy Zamora at third base to keep the game tied.[5]
Spain vs Chinese Taipei
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain |
2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 15 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Chinese Taipei |
0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 11 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Elian Leyva (1–0) LP: Yu-Hung Chen (0–1) Home runs: ESP: Gabriel Lino (1) TPE: Yu Chang (1) Attendance: 35,325 (88.8%) Umpires: HP – Ty Krauss, 1B – Yoshiharu Yamaguchi, 2B – Ben Phillips, 3B – Scott Costello Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Spain defeated Chinese Taipei 12-5 in a shocking upset over the host country. Chinese Taipei were nearly subject to a 10-run mercy rule in the 7th inning, before scoring a run.[6] Catcher Gabriel Lino said this about the shocking win: "It was really exciting to play here, in front of 40,000 people and to win against a team like Chinese Taipei [...] The best part is that we were focused and working on our goal from the start until the end, and I feel like this was a really important game for all of us. Hitting a home run was amazing too, but, for me, the win was the most important part of the night."[7]
Spain vs Nicaragua
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain |
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Nicaragua |
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 0 | ||||||||||
| WP: Yéris Gonzalez (1-0) LP: Rhiner Cruz (0-1) Home runs: ESP: Carlos Colmenarez (1) NIC: Brandon Leyton (1) Umpires: HP - Ben Phillips, 1B - Evin Johnson, 2B - Ik Soo Kim, 3B - Mark Stewart Jr | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese Taipei vs South Africa
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese Taipei |
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 14 | 0 | |||||||||||
| South Africa |
0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||
| WP: Tzu-Chen Sha (1-0) LP: Damon King (0-1) Home runs: TPE: Cheng-Jui Sung (1), Tsung-Hsien Lee (1) RSA: None Attendance: 35,868 (89.6%) Umpires: HP - Scott Costello, 1B - Ty Krauss, 2B - Mark Stewart Jr, 3B - Ik Soo Kim Boxscore | |||||||||||||||||||||||
South Africa vs Spain
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Spain |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Nicaragua vs Chinese Taipei
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Spain |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Second place playoff
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening round 3rd place team | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Opening round 2nd place team | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
References
- ↑ "World Baseball Classic Qualifiers announced". MLB.com. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
- ↑ "WBSC Men's Baseball Rankings". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
- ↑ "World Baseball Classic Qualifiers". MLB.com.
- ↑ "Scores and results from the 2025 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers in Taipei". MLB.com. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
- ↑ "South Africa pulls off hidden ball trick for out, Nicaragua wins WBC Qualifiers opener". Associated Press. 21 February 2025. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
- ↑ "Taiwan escapes mercy-rule loss to Spain in WBCQ opener". Taipei Times. 21 February 2025. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
- ↑ "Scores and results from the 2025 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers in Taipei". MLB.com. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
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