Pools, Schedule announced for 2015 WBSC Men’s Softball World Championship

Plant City, FL (USA) — The World Baseball Softball Confederation today announced the pools and official tournament schedule of the 2015 WBSC Men’s Softball World Championship taking place in Saskatoon, Canada from 26 June to 5 July.

The fourteenth edition of the men’s flagship softball event will showcase a total of 73 games, 56 in a round-robin format, followed by 7 placement games and 10 playoff games.

Nations will be divided into two pools of eight to compete in a challenging round-robin that consists of seven games in seven days, with the top four finishers from each pool advancing to the double page playoff round.

• Pool A: Argentina, Canada, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Guatemala, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Philippines
• Pool B: Australia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, USA, and Venezuela

The participating nations in the WBSC Men’s Softball Championship represent a global reach that spans across Asia, Europe, North- and South America, and Oceania.

All 16 participating National Teams will be competing on Opening Day, with action opening on Friday, 26 June at 09:30 local time.

(See Official Schedule)

Opening ceremonies will begin at 17:30 at the main competition field, which will be followed by Canada meeting Guatemala in front of the home crowd.

The gold medal game will take centre stage on 5 July at 14:30, and will be preceded by the bronze medal match at 11:30.

Guatemala will be making their historic men’s world championship debut, following their performance at the Pan American Softball Championship held in Paraná, Argentina in November 2014.

New Zealand is aiming to repeat as world champions following their gold medal performance on their home turf in 2013 by defeating Venezuela 4-1; Australia earned the bronze medal.

The WBSC has a full list of official events on the calendar that span from June to November which include the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, the U12 Baseball World Cup in Tainan, Chinese Taipei, the U19 Women’s Softball World Championship in Oklahoma City, USA, the U18 Men’s Baseball World Cup at Koshien Stadium in Japan, and the inaugural Premier 12 co-hosted by Japan and Chinese Taipei.