Charlie Collins Homer Lifts Great Britain to First U-23 World Cup Win

Great Britain earned its first victory of the 2026 WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup on Monday, beating South Africa 5-3 in León, Nicaragua, after Charlie Collins delivered a go-ahead three-run homer in the rain.

Collins drove in four of Britain’s five runs and finished a double short of the cycle. His fourth-inning home run overturned a 3-2 deficit, and the score held when worsening weather ended the game after five innings.

Collins answers South Africa’s comeback

Great Britain took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after captain Jake Lambdin was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a Sean Benjamin single combined with a South African error.

Collins doubled the advantage in the second. Andrew Johnston singled and advanced on a bunt and an error before Collins drove a ball off the top of the right-field wall for an RBI triple.

South Africa responded with three runs in the third. Darian Pretorius’ two-run bloop single completed the rally and put his team ahead 3-2, but reliever Cam Moore stopped the inning from growing and then escaped another threat in the fourth with consecutive strikeouts.

Quinn Allen opened the bottom of the fourth with a single, and Lambdin reached after being hit for the second time. With two outs, Collins sent a three-run shot into the rainy night to restore Britain’s lead at 5-3.

Moore closes the door before rain ends it

South Africa put two runners in scoring position with two outs in the fifth as the rain intensified. Moore recovered to strike out Aydee Osman on a full count, ending the threat. The downpour then forced the game to be called.

Both teams finished with five hits and two errors. Great Britain improved to 1-2 in Group B, while South Africa fell to 0-3.

The result gave the reigning European U-23 champion its first win of this World Cup after narrow and heavy defeats to Japan and Venezuela. Great Britain next faces South Korea at Estadio Nacional Soberanía in Managua on Monday night.