Baseball New Zealand recently concluded observations and named its U-15 National Team roster, which was formed over the course of several months of talent identification across New Zealand for the top Kiwi baseball players. Baseball NZ officials indicated that over 30 hours of evaluation were logged to assemble the Kiwi’s first-ever U-15 National Team.

New Zealand is the first country to release its National Team roster for the U-15 IBAF World Cup.

It was announced last week that world No. 14 Australia and No. 28 New Zealand will represent Oceania at the 2nd U-15 Baseball World Cup, which will be held in Baja California Sur, Mexico from 31 July to 10 August. Tunisia was also added to the field.

IBAF officials in Lausanne will announce the groups, tournament format and venues of the U-15 world championship this week.

The 2014 IBAF U-15 in Mexico will have the largest global footprint ever for a baseball world championship, with eighteen participating nations coming from all corners of the world:

Africa: South Africa (No. 31) and unranked Tunisia

Caribbean: Cuba (No. 3)

Central America: Mexico (No. 12) and Panama (No.13)

North America: USA (No. 1)

South America: Argentina (No. 22), Brazil (No. 15) and Venezuela (No. 10)

Europe: Czech Republic (No. 27), Italy (No. 11), Germany (No. 19) and Lithuania (No. 54)

Asia: Chinese Taipei (No. 4), Hong Kong (No. 29) and Japan (No. 2)

Oceania: Australia (No. 14) and New Zealand

The 2014 IBAF U-15 Baseball World Cup will mark the historic debuts for both New Zealand and Tunisia in a baseball world championship of any level.

In addition, nearly half of the 18 nations will be competing in their first IBAF U-15 Baseball World Cup: Australia, Czech Republic, Japan, New Zealand, Panama, South Africa, Tunisia and the United States.

Launched by the IBAF in 2012, the U-15 (ages 13-15) Baseball World Cup has established itself as the premier international baseball event for this youth age category, with the best under-15 baseball players in the world representing their countries on their National Teams every two years.

At the inaugural IBAF U-15 Baseball World Cup in 2012, Venezuela defeated Cuba to win the gold medal, while Chinese Taipei earned the bronze.

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