LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The official competition schedule of the eighteen-nation 2014 U-15 Baseball World Cup has been announced, revealing that all eighteen participating National Teams will be competing on Opening Day.
The most elite selection of 15-year-old baseball players in the world will be competing for their countries in the II U-15 Baseball World Cup, which will be staged from 31-July to 10-August in Culiacan, Los Mochis and Mazatlán, Mexico.
It was also announced that the Central American country — and world No. 52 — Guatemala has been added to Group A. (See Groups.)
To open the U-15 World Cup, teams within each group will compete in a round-robin that consists of five games in five days, with the top two finishers from each group advancing to the second round.
U-15 World Cup ‘Opening Day’ Schedule (in order of play):
| No. 4 Chinese Taipei | vs. | No. 52 Guatemala |
| No. 28 New Zealand | vs. | No. 19 Germany |
| No. 2 Japan | vs. | No. 31 South Africa |
| No. 15 Brazil | vs. | No. 27 Czech Republic |
| No. 14 Australia | vs. | No. 54 Lithuania |
| No. 10 Venezuela | vs. | No. 29 Hong Kong |
| No. 12 Mexico | vs. | No. 11 Italy |
| No. 13 Panama | vs. | No. 1 United States |
| No. 22 Argentina | vs. | No. 3 Cuba |
(See Official Schedule).The majority of the 2014 U-15 World Cup field (fifteen of the eighteen participating nations) boasts a World Ranking between No. 1 – 31.
No. 13 Panama, No. 14 Australia and No. 15 Brazil will all be aiming to make a push at the U-15 World Cup to improve their position within the rankings, in order to qualify for the 2015 Premier12 — the recently announced professional-level World Championship in which the world’s top-twelve nations at the end of 2014 will qualify into the new flagship event. No. 10 Venezuela, No. 11 Italy and No. 12 Mexico can use a solid U-15 performance to secure their position as a ‘Premier12’ nation.
Venezuela will come into the event as the defending U-15 World Champion, handing Cuba its only loss at the gold medal finale of the inaugural U-15 Baseball World Cup in 2012; Chinese Taipei defeated the host, Mexico, to earn the bronze medal.
The 2014 U-15 world championship will be the first time that either No.1 USA or No. 2 Japan will be represented. Others making their debuts are Australia, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Panama and South Africa — which connects Africa and Oceania to the U-15 Baseball World Cup platform for the first time ever.
Baseball’s 2014 U-15 global platform expands across Africa, the Americas (i.e., the Caribbean, North-, Central- and South America), Asia, Europe and Oceania.
Coverage of the eighty-three world championship matches will be enhanced by online play-by-play (i.e., U-15 Baseball World Cup CBSSports GameTracker) and through social media (by following @BWC15U on Twitter and “BaseballWorldCup” on Facebook and Instagram; official hash tag #BWC15U). Broadcast details are expected to be announced in the coming days.