WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup – For the Title of World Champion

Welcome to this daily summary of the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, giving you the latest news and key updates on baseball’s official youth world championship.

TAINAN, Taiwan — The city of Tainan hosted the VI WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup pre-tournament press conference on Thursday, 28 July, on the eve of the tournament’s Opening Day.

World No. 2 Chinese Taipei are the defending champions of the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, and will begin their title defence out of Group A.

“We will try our best to defend the world title and keep the trophy in Taiwan,” commented Chinese Taipei U-12 manager Lai Chao Jung, a veteran at the international level. “I want to thank the WBSC for holding this tournament. I’m happy we can play and honoured to have the possibility to represent Chinese Taipei once again.”

At least two other squads in Group A are aiming for the world title.

Juan Morales, manager world No. 4 Mexico, said: “Our mission here is to become World Champions. We feel we can compete with every other team.” Morales, a former collegiate player in the US, added: “We have five tournaments in Mexico for this age bracket. We started in November 2021 and held the last one during the first week of July. We got started with a pre-selection of 45, and we cut it down to the final 18-player roster.”

“We treat baseball as our game in my country”, said Manuel Rodriguez, the experienced manager for No. 13 Panama. “We feel we are baseball leaders. As always, we expect to try for the World Title. We are aware it won’t be easy.” Panama held a 40-day national team training camp before heading to Tainan.

No. 6 Venezuela, a baseball powerhouse, can also win it all: “We aim for the podium,” said Venezuela manager Rafael Herdé, who will serve for the third time as the skipper for the U-12 World Cup. “We did our best to get ready.” The Venezuelan Baseball Federation recently launched a U-11 National Championship, which serves as the base for selecting the U-12 National Team.

No. 17 Italy and No. 26 South Africa have set their own goals.

“We hope to match our ninth place finish of 2019,” commented Italy manager Stefano Burato, who has served as the manager since 2019. “These kids haven’t seen much action in the last two seasons because of the COVID-19 restrictions.”

“As a team, we expected to participate not only our country but the whole continent,” said South Africa manager Ian Griebenow. “Each one of my players understands that whatever we can get from this, we can bring back to South Africa and grow the game.”

World No. 5 USA looks like the team to beat in Group B: “Our expectations are really high,” said US manager Ray Farrell, who served as a coach on the 2017 U-12 World Champion USA. “I was fortunate enough in 2017, but I was also there in 2019 when we missed getting into the Super Round. The U-12 World Cup is a big event for us. We’re trying to get back on the international stage and show what our National Team is all about.”

Former Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) All-Star Hirokazu Ibata will manage world No. 1 Japan: “We are here to win. Japan has never won a U-12 World Cup.” Ibata said: “Our selection process started with a digital challenge. We watched several videos and selected 40 players. After that, we held more tryouts to reduce the number to 18.”

“Our final goal is to become World Champions,” said Dong-Jiin Lee, Korea National Team manager and former KBO player. “Our players are very fast, have a lot of confidence, and want to compete.” The world No. 3 programme upgraded its selection process: “This time we selected the team nationwide. On previous occasions, we selected it locally.”

No. 7 Dominican Republic will make their U-12 World Cup debut and are looking to finish on the podium: “We have worked against time, but with enough gap to form a squad capable of fighting for one of the three medals,” Dominican manager Alvaro Samboy, a former Minor League Baseball (MiLB) pitcher, recently commented.

No. 14 Czech Republic is aware of the world-class level of competition in Tainan: “We came here intending to finish in the Top 10. It would be great to finish in the top 8, but we will see about that,” said Czech manager Matous Prochazka, at 29, the youngest skipper in the tournament. “We are excited to be here; it’s an honour.” Prochazka and his staff worked on a group of 140 players and reduced it to 30 at the beginning of the year.