Groups, schedule revealed for WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup, this September in Florida

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) and host USA Baseball today announced the groups and game schedule for the XXX WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup® 2021, which will be played from 9-18 September in Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida, USA.

Baseball’s 30th U-18 World Championship will be contested over 50 games, with the world’s best young baseball prospects and teams set to compete over nine days of competition at LECOM Park and Ed Smith Stadium.

Group A features host No. 5 USA, No. 3 Korea, No. 8 Netherlands, No. 12 Canada, No. 25 Brazil and No. 26 South Africa.

Group B features world No. 1 Japan, No. 2 Chinese Taipei, No. 4 Mexico, No. 10 Australia, No. 13 Panama and No. 17 Italy.

The top three teams from Group A will play the top three teams from Group B in the Super Round from 15-17 September, with the top two teams meeting ‘For the Title of World Champion’ on Sunday, 18 September.

The U-18 Baseball World Cups, along with its continental qualifiers, have consistently featured players who have gone on to become some of the biggest names in the sport, such as Japan’s Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani; Korea’s Shin-soo Choo; Cuba’s Yasiel Puig and Aroldis Chapman; and Clayton Kershaw, Bryce Harper, Francisco Lindor, Manny Machado and Buster Posey, who all played for USA Baseball’s U-18 National Team.

Chinese Taipei won the last WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2019, defeating then-defending world champions USA in the final, in Gijang, Korea.

The XXX WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup had been originally set to take place in September 2021, but was postponed to 2022 due to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.