1995 World Junior Championship

The 1995 World Junior Championship was held in Cape Cod from August 11 through August 20, 1995. It was the 15th World Junior Championship. The US won its 4th title while Taiwan won its 4th Silver in 5 trips to the finals. Australia won its fifth Bronze while Cuba disappointed for the second straight year, failing to win a Medal.

The star of the tournament was Brad Wilkerson, who pitched a 3-hit shutout in the finals and drove in the winning run in the semifinals in a 5-4 victory over Australia. Wilkerson won MVP honors. He hit .360 with 3 doubles, 3 homers, 7 runs and 8 RBI and was 3-0 with a 0.90 ERA, striking out 26 and allowing 11 hits and 3 walks in 20 IP. The USA was 8-1 overall. Other stars for them were RF Eric Valent (.394, 9 R, 9 RBI), who joined Wilkerson on the All-Tournament Team. SS Jay Hood hit .389 with 5 doubles, 2 homers, 7 runs and 7 RBI and was named the Best Defensive Player. CF Jody Gerut (.361), LF Brent Abernathy (.346), Gil Meche (6.23 ERA) and C David Ross (0 for 7) all went on to careers in the majors, as did several other members of the team.

Taiwan had three players on the All-Tournament Team: Pitcher Hsien-Cheng Meng, 3B Cheng-Min Peng (.419, 3 HR, 9 RBI) and SS Chih-Wei Shih (.400). Shih-Kai Chang (0-1, 0.00) led the tourney in ERA.

Australia had two All-Tournament players in C Andrew Utting and 2B Mark Paparella.

South Korea was 6-1 in the round-robin to tie the US for the best record, but then lost 4-2 to Taiwan in the semifinals and 6-5 to Australia in the Bronze Medal game to fail to duplicate their Gold Medal of 1994. 1B Bong-soo Park and P Soo-sun Kim made the All-Tournament team. Byung-hyun Kim was 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA, striking out 13 in 10 IP.

Canada just missed the final four with a 4-3 record and 39-31 run differential. Bobby Cripps and Shawn Pearson each hit .385 while Aaron Myette was 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 16 innings. They had no one on the All-Tournament team.

Cuba was only 3-4 despite the second-best pitching in the round-robin (20 runs allowed). All-Star OF Yoandy Garlobo hit .385 with 7 runs while Mayque Quintero (0-2, 0.55) and Jonder Martinez (1-1, 0.98, 24 K in 18 IP, 10 H) led the tough-luck staff.

The Netherlands was 1-6, ahead of only 0-7 Italy, which was outscored 81-13. Italy did have the #1 contact hitter, Davide Dallospedale (.438).

Source: 1996 Baseball Almanac