By Bruce Baskin
After a yearlong delay due to the ongoing global pandemic, the World Baseball Softball Confederation has rescheduled its Under-23 World Baseball Championship Tournament for September and October in Hermosillo and Obregon, Mexico. Twelve nations will be competing with mostly minor league players for the U23 crown, which was last played for in 2018, with Mexico taking the title in Colombia.
A six-team Group A field will congregate in Obregon at Estadio Yaquis, while six Group B contestants will converge on Estadio Sonora in Hermosillo for the round-robin first stage of the competition, with the opening games scheduled for September 23.
After the first-round dust settles, the top three teams from each group will gather in Hermosillo for the Super Round, featuring crossover games against nations advancing from the opposite group added to previous results to determine seedings for the Bronze and Gold medal games on Saturday, October 2. The bottom three from each group will convene in Obregon for the Consolation Round, using a similar format to determine placings from seventh through twelfth place.
For the 2021 edition, the WBSC approved that 24-year-old players can participate due to the pandemic causing the postponement of a year of the event. Thus, players born from 1997 to 2003 may be chosen to the rosters of their respective national teams.
Group A (Obregon)
Czech Republic
Mexico
New Zealand
Nicaragua
South Korea
Taiwan
Group B (Hermosillo)
China
Cuba
Germany
Japan
South Africa
Venezuela
A schedule of games for the WBSC U23 World championship has not been released yet.
Bruce Baskin writes on Mexican baseball at BaseballMexico.blogspot.com. His BASEBALL MEXICO newsletter has provided the world’s only regular English-language coverage of Mexican baseball since 2009.
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