Nine participating teams will compete for the continental title and three available tickets to the XVII WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup, which will take place next July in Europe.

The list includes 38 brands. Only one-piece wooden bats can be used in the WBSC Premier12 and the U-23 and U-18 Baseball World Cups.

The WBSC package - consisting of 135 gloves, 24 softball bats, 30 baseball bats, 24 helmets, 12 catcher-gear sets and 18 gear bags - was sent to Fiji in 2021 for distribution throughout the Oceania region.

Umbria Redskins and Roma will play the opening game. Three more games are scheduled for Sunday, 26 March. The top four finishers of the nine-team regular season will advance to the semifinals.

Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto homered, and Samurai Japan edged the United States, 3-2, to become World Champions for the first time in international baseball history. It's the third consecutive title for Japan after claiming the WBSC Premier12 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Murakami, the NPB triple crown (pictured), delivered the winning hit on a 1-1 count off reliever Giovanny Gallegos with no one out in the bottom of the ninth. Japan will face the United States in the World Championship final on Tuesday, 21 March.

The first event to be held under this new system is the XVII WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup this year, which will play the Group Stage in Europe from 11 to 26 July in Fingal-Dublin, Ireland (Group A); Valencia, Spain (Group B); and Castions di Strada and Buttrio, Italy (Group C). The finals will be staged in Italy in the summer of 2024.

After its release in February, WBSC eBASEBALL™: POWER PROS has proven popular with downloads from all corners of the globe

Trea Turner, the quarterfinal hero, added two. Paul Goldschmidt and Cedric Mullins also homered as the defending World Champions outscored Cuba 14-2.

The European team unveiled a 14-player list for the first WBSC softball tournament of the year.