8 nations alive in WBSC Junior Men’s Softball World Championship as Playoff Schedule announced

PRINCE ALBERT, SK, Canada — After 6 days and 36 games of exciting action and atmosphere, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today revealed the playoff schedule for the WBSC Junior Men’s Softball World Championship in Prince Albert, Canada.

Eight nations now remain in the race For The Title of World Champion. In order of standings, Japan, Australia, Argentina and Mexico advanced to the Championship Round out of Group A, while Canada, New Zealand, Czech Republic and USA advanced through Group B. Japan and Canada both went undefeated (6-0) to win their respective groups. The eight teams repeat the playoff field from the previous Junior Men’s Softball World Championship in 2016.

Five nations — Denmark, Guatemala, India, Hong Kong and South Africa — have been eliminated from medal contention and will continue to play in the Placement Round to determine the final standings and bonus of world ranking points.

Opening Round Standings

Global Impact in Prince Albert

Drawing large crowds and creating a buzz, the WBSC Junior Men’s Softball World Championship in Prince Albert is already being called “the biggest event to ever hit the city”.  The economic impact of the global tournament is expected to be CAD$ 10 million for the local community, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Playoff Picture

The Championship Round will be played under the double page system. The top two seeded nations in each group will have double life in the playoff, while third and fourth seeds will face single elimination games from the beginning.

The World Championship Finale will be held on Sunday, 15 July, at 15:00 local time.

Headlining the action on Friday the 13th, Canada will face Australia at 20:00 local time (10 pm US Eastern, 4 am on Saturday 14 July CEST). The hosts were perfect in Group B and will try to win the Junior Men’s Softball World Championship on home soil for the first time in history. Canada’s only world title was back in 1993 in Auckland, New Zealand. Australia lost yesterday against Japan in the last game of Group A, and finished in the second place. The last time the Canadian and Australian Junior Men’s National Teams collided was in Whitehorse 2014, with the Aussies winning, 5-0.

Japan clinched the top spot in the Group A and will play against New Zealand at 17:30 p.m. local time. The Junior Black Sox’s only loss in the Opening Round was to Canada on Tuesday, in front of a sellout crowd,. The Japan-New Zealand contest will be a rematch of the 2016 World Championship Gold Medal Game, which Japan won, 2-1, to be crowned World Champions.

Czech Republic and Mexico will met at 12:30 local time, in the first win-or-go-home match-up in the tournament. The European team beat the U.S. in their final Opening Round match to clinch the third spot in Group B; while Mexico advanced to playoffs with a 3-3 record, as the fourth seeded in Group A. The last meeting between these two teams was a 14-3 win for Mexico in Whitehorse 2014.

The other elimination game of the day will be Argentina against the U.S., which starts at 15:00. The South American squad clinched the third place in Group A with win over India to close the Opening Round. USA dropped to fourth place after the loss to Czech Republic. Argentina and USA last played each other in the inaugural game at Midland 2016. Argentina beat USA, 6-5.

Championship Round Schedule

• C1 – 12:30 – Mexico v Czech Republic
• C2 – 15:00 – USA v Argentina
• C3 – 17:30 – New Zealand v Japan
• C4 – 20:00 – Australia v Canada

Placement Round Schedule

• P1 – 12:00 – Denmark v Hong Kong
• P2 – 14:30 – Guatemala v South Africa
• P3 – 17:00 – Winner P1 v India
• P4 – 19:30 – Loser P1 v Loser P2

All games of the WBSC Junior Men’s Softball World Championship are being live-streamed at www.youtube.com/wbsc. During the Opening Round, the Junior Men’s Softball World Championship registered an online viewership of 173 countries and territories.

For full coverage of the event, including live play-by-play, stats and game summaries, visit the official tournament website at https://jmswc.wbsc.org.