Women’s baseball makes historic debut at Pan Am Games, marks growth of game

21/07/2015

TORONTO – Women’s baseball made its historic debut at the Pan American Games, with two games on Monday, 20 July — generating worldwide headlines.

TORONTO – Women’s baseball made its historic debut at the Pan American Games, with two games on Monday, 20 July — generating worldwide headlines.

Twelve international women’s baseball contests are part of the 2015 Pan Am Games sports programme, with the gold medal finale set for Sunday, 26 July.

In the opener, the U.S. Women’s National Team, ranked No. 2 in the world, defeated Venezuela, 10-6, while No. 4 Canada beat Cuba, 13-1.

The Puerto Rican Women’s National Team is also competing at Toronto 2015 and will debut against Cuba on Tuesday, 21 July.

It’s the first time in history that women’s baseball is being featured at a multi-sport event, and the new addition is considered a major boost that highlights the global growth of the game and women’s sport.

At the world level, the inaugural Women’s Baseball World Cup was also held in Canada, in Edmonton in 2004, after having been launched by the IBAF in 2002.

The United States scored a medal last year for the Americas at the VI WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup in Miyazaki, Japan.

The next WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup will be staged in 2016 in South Korea.

Japan is top-ranked nation in the official WBSC Women’s Baseball World Rankings, while Australia is No. 3.

Baseball and softball at the Pan Am Games is overseen by WBSC and its continental confederations for the Americas, together with the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO).