The V WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup is set to begin tomorrow with 13 teams from the five continents playing 44 games for the title of world champion. The teams have been split into three groups to open the competition, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Super Round. The tournament will be played in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Group A
Three of the six top-ten participating teams will collide in Group A, as Chinese Taipei, host Mexico, and Cuba share the group with Czech Republic, the top-ranked European nation in the tournament.
Chinese Taipei earned the bronze medal in the last edition of this event in 2018, their second of two bronzes in the four previous editions. Cuba played in the first three World Championship Finals of the U-15 World Cup, winning a silver and two world titles. In 2018, the Cubans finished in fifth place. They advanced to Hermosillo as the third place finisher from the Americas Qualifier.
Mexico and Czech Republic are back in the tournament after being absent in 2018, and are aiming for their first finals appearance in this category.
Group B
The top-ranked nation in the world will take on Colombia, Panama and France in Group B of the World Cup.
Japan finished second in the 2016 edition when they hosted the event in Iwaki, losing the final against Cuba. Four years ago, in the last edition of this tournament, they lost the bronze medal game in Panama against Chinese Taipei to finish in fourth place.
Colombia and Panama, ranked 11th and 13th in the world ranking, are battling to qualify for the WBSC Premier12, a flagship tournament that includes the top-12 teams in the world. Panama earned the silver as host team in 2018, losing to USA the final of the event. Colombia advanced to this tournament as the fifth team from the Americas.
France will make their historic debut in this World Cup. They qualified as second place of the U-15 Baseball European Championship.
Group C
Five teams will play in Group C, including the defending world champions USA, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, South Africa and Guam.
USA won their first and only U-15 world championship in Panama 2018, beating the host team in the final. After missing the first edition of the tournament, they have won a medal in the last three U-15 World Cups.
Venezuela qualified as the co-winner of the Americas Qualifier, along with Panama (the final was rained out). The claimed the 2012 world championship in this event, and won bronze in the second edition, two years later.
This will be South Africa’s third appearance in this tournament, after being 16th in 2014 and 12th in 2018.
Puerto Rico and Guam will make their debut in this tournament, becoming the 29th and 30th nation to play the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup.
