The U-12 Baseball World Cup is to open in Tainan on July 25, with Taiwan hosting Cuba in the two teams’ first game in the opening round, the Tainan City Government said yesterday.
Taiwan and Cuba are to play the third Group A game on the opening day at the Asia Pacific International Baseball Training Centers in Tainan, the city government said in a statement.
Japan, Mexico, Australia and Germany make up the rest of Group A in the 12-team tournament held every two years by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).
Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Government via CNA
The defending champions — the US — are to play in Group B, along with South Korea, Panama, the Dominican Republic, the Czech Republic and South Africa.
Each team would play the other five teams in the same group in a round-robin format in the opening round, and the teams with the three best records in the two groups would advance to the Super Round, which begins on July 31.
In the Super Round, teams will carry over their records against teams from the same group, and each of the Group A teams would play each of the Group B teams.
The top two finishers would play for the world title, and the third and fourth-place teams would compete for the bronze medal on Aug. 3, the WBSC said.
In the 2023 tournament, Taiwan finished as runners-up, winning the team’s fourth silver medal in the seven editions of the U-12 World Cup, which was first launched in Taipei in 2011 and has always been played in Taiwan.
Taiwan won the title in 2011 and 2019, along with a bronze medal in the 2021 edition that took place in 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aside from Taiwan, only Japan, South Korea and Mexico have competed in all seven editions of the U-12 World Cup.
Although the US missed the inaugural edition, its team has won five of the six titles since.
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