Hirokazu Ibata to return as Japanese U-12 Baseball National Team manager

Hirokazu Ibata to return as Japanese U-12 Baseball National Team manager
17/05/2023
The staff includes pitching coach Kazuki Yoshimi and assistant coaches Shiro Nagatake and Tomoaki Koga.

Samurai Japan announced that Hirokazu Ibata will manage the National Team at the VII WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup.

Ibata and pitching coach Kazuki Yoshimi return from the 2022 squad, which finished seventh in the VI WBSC U-12 World Cup last year. The staff also includes assistant coaches Shiro Nagatake and Tomoaki Koga.

Ibata and his staff are selecting the final roster and plan to hold the critical tryout on 18 June. The process started with a digital challenge.

The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) will host the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup from 28 July to 6 August 2023 at Tainan's Asia-Pacific International Baseball Stadium.

The Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) announced it didn't hold a qualification process and assigned the three U-12 Baseball World Cup continental spots to the three best Asian programmes in WBSC World Rankings: No. 1 Japan, No. 4 Chinese Taipei and No. 5 Korea.

Japan participated in all six editions of the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup. Their best result is the 2019 silver medal having also won bronze in 2013.