Wednesday 28 June – The World Baseball Softball Confederation has today announced that the first-ever Co-ed Slowpitch World Cup for national teams will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico from 5-10 December 2023.
Twelve teams – including the Great Britain Co-ed Slowpitch Team – will take part in the competition, but five of the 12 remain to be determined.
The line-up so far is:
Europe: Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands
Asia: China, Philippines, Chinese Taipei
Americas: 3 teams
Africa: 1 team
Oceania: 1 team
Host/Wild Card: Mexico
The three European qualifiers were decided at last summer’s European Co-ed Slowpitch Championship, and the three Asian teams emerged from a qualifier played a few weeks ago.
After qualifiers from America, Africa and Oceania are determined, venues, groups and a schedule for the tournament will be announced.
Milestone
WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari said, “The WBSC Co-ed Slowpitch Softball World Cup marks another major milestone with the addition of this softball discipline, bringing our World Cup portfolio to 15 events. This new event brings new opportunities for athletes around the world to represent their countries at the highest level in a very popular discipline, with millions of people playing slowpitch softball, both competitively or for leisure, around the world.”
The WBSC Co-ed Slowpitch World Cup is the fourth WBSC mixed-gender World Cup, following the successfully launched Baseball5 World Cup, which was held in Mexico City last year, the Under-12 Mixed Softball World Cup, and the maiden Youth Baseball5 World Cup.
Under the rules for the event, the pitcher and catcher must be different genders and the four infield positions must be filled by two males and two females.
BSF Administrator Bob Fromer said, “We have been waiting all year for the first-ever Co-ed Slowpitch World Cup to be officially announced so we would know that our long-held dream for a genuine World Championship event for slowpitch has finally come true. This is a tremendous moment for Great Britain as a country where co-ed slowpitch is overwhelmingly the main format, and it will be exciting to see how our dominance in Europe can translate onto a world stage.”
The WBSC has also unveiled the logo for the new competition, which replicates the characteristic parabola of the pitch featured in the discipline. The curves in the logo also symbolise the initials of the slowpitch discipline: SP.