The World Baseball Softball Confederation announced that the II WBSC U-12 Mixed Softball World Cup has been moved to the summer of 2022 in Taichung, TPE. The exact dates of the tournament will be announced at a later stage.

The tournament was originally scheduled to take place from 1-12 December 2021, but has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID pandemic. 

An increased number of eight mixed-gender teams, twice as many as the first edition in 2019, will be participating in the event, with the breakdown by continent as follows:

  • Africa: 1 team
  • Americas: 2 teams
  • Asia: 2 teams
  • Europe: 1 team
  • Oceania: 1 team
  • Wild card/Host nation: 1 team

The teams will be drawn into two groups for an opening round-robin, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Super Round. The two nations with the best Super Round records will play in the world championship final, while the third- and fourth-place finishers will meet in the bronze medal game.

The WBSC has ruled that there will be no exception to the age bracket. Players born in 2010 and 2011 will be eligible to be selected onto their respective national teams.

The WBSC U-12 Mixed Softball World Cup, the WBSC’s first-ever mixed-gender world cup, boasts a tournament format that is designed to further boost gender equality across all WBSC disciplines. All squads must include 14-16 players aged 10 to 12, and each team must include at least four females and four males on the field of play at any one time, with a batting line-up alternating between five female and five male players.

Host Chinese Taipei went undefeated in the inaugural U-12 Mixed Softball World Cup in 2019 to win the world title in the youngest softball category. Peru won the silver medal and Czech Republic completed the podium. Indonesia completed the field, finishing in fourth place.

/ WBSC PR
Photo courtesy of EMRYT