U-12 Baseball Pan American championship starts in Mexico, top four to qualify for WBSC World Cup

The U-12 Baseball Pan American Championship got under way yesterday in Aguascalientes, Mexico, with 12 nations participating. The Pan Am continental championship serves as the qualifier for the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, with the top four finishers earning a ticket to the U-12 world championship – the highest level of competition for 12-year-olds.

A total of 216 athletes from Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, United States, and Venezuela were present in the inaugural ceremony of the event.

The tournament will be played in three venues: Centro de Capacitación Deportiva Infantil; Francisco Guel Jiménez Baseball field, in Jesus María; and the baseball field of the Unidad Deportiva Emiliano Zapata, in San Francisco de los Romo.

The 12 teams have been drawn into two groups:

Group A: Argentina, Aruba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela

Group B: Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Panama and USA.

The top three teams of each group will advance to the super round and will fight for a spot in the World Cup.

Two years ago, Mexico, the U.S., Nicaragua and Brazil qualified for the World Cup 2017.