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The World Baseball and Softball Confederation has revealed the initial round-robin pools and the schedule for the 12th Junior Women’s World Championship, to be played in Clearwater, Florida from 24-30 July.
A record number of 26 countries will take part, and they have been divided into four first-round pools, with round-robins to be played over the first four days of the tournament.
Pools A and B will each have seven teams, while Pools C and D will have six teams.
The United States is the defending champion.
GB hopes​
The GB Junior Women’s Team, winners of last summer’s European Championship and 13th-place finishers at the last Junior World Championship in 2015, have been drawn in Pool D. GB will play Canada, China, Ireland, Mexico and Korea, with the top two teams from each group going forward to a Championship round.
The remaining teams will divide into two Placement rounds. Teams finishing third and fourth in each initial pool will play a Double Page Playoff to determine places 9-16, while the remaining teams will play a single-elimination format to decide places 17-26.
Getting to the Championship round from a very tough group will be a difficult assignment for the GB Juniors, but in 2015, GB only lost to China by 2-1 and to Canada by 4-0, and will hope to improve on those results with what should be a stronger team this time around.
Pools​
The pools in full are:
Pool A: USA, Chinese Taipei, Italy, Philippines, Guatemala, Turkey, South Africa.
Pool B: Japan, Australia, Brazil, Netherlands, Peru, Israel, Bahamas
Pool C: Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Argentina, Dominican Republic, India
Pool D: Canada, Mexico, China, Great Britain, Korea, Ireland
Schedule
Opening ceremonies will be held on Sunday 23 July, at the Sheraton Sand Key Beach in Clearwater at 6.00 pm, and all 26 teams will compete on Opening Day, Monday 24 July.
GB will play Korea at 11.00 am local time (4.00 pm in the UK) on Opening Day, and will then face China at 6.00 pm local time.
On Tuesday, 25 July, GB will play Ireland at 4.00 pm, and will face Canada at 6.00 pm on Wednesday 26 July.
GB’s final group game, against Mexico, will be played at 4.30 pm on Thursday 27 July.
Playoffs in the Championship and both Placement groups will take place over the next three days, with the bronze and gold medal games, plus the placement finals, on Sunday 30 July. The gold medal game will take centre stage at 4.00 pm local time (9.00 pm in the UK) and will be preceded by the bronze medal match at 2.30 pm.
GB Team
The 15-strong team chosen by Head Coach Rachael Watkeys for this tournament includes nine players who were part of the GB Team that won the European Junior Championship in 2016, going undefeated throughout the tournament.
The team has four pitchers, headed by Georgina Corrick, the only player also chosen this year for the Senior Women’s Team. New players Beth Fleming and Andrea Johnson, plus returnee Kyra Watson, make up the rest of the pitching staff.
The team has a great deal of positional flexibility, with most players able to play multiple positions. The full roster is:
Hannah Burge
Katie Burge
Ashleigh Carolan
Georgina Corrick
Saskia Davies
Beth Fleming
Laura Hirai
Andrea Johnson
Lauren King
Olivia Lee
Casey Moritz
Megan Parno
Chelsie Robison
Alana Snow
Kyra Watson
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Webstreaming
Reports from all GB games at the WBSC Junior Women’s World Championship will be posted on this website.
All games will also be webstreamed, and this facility can be purchased through the tournament website: www.clearwater2017.wbsc.org.