WBSC 2024 season review: Four stories which had a major impact on and off the field

Usually, everyone remembers the champions, but some teams who didn’t win it all also made a major impact and became stories that sports fans will never forget. Let’s check out four of them from the exciting 2024 season of tournaments on the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) calendar.

Puerto Rico | WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup 2024

Puerto Rico’s run at the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup 2024 hosted by Colombia was memorable. Boricuas won seven games and only lost twice, both times against Japan, to put themselves into the World Championship Final.

An almost perfect execution from Japan was the only to prevent Puerto Rico from winning the World Championship.

Key Game: Puerto Rico 8 - 2 Chinese Taipei. A statement win that put the Caribbean team on route to the final.

Canada | WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals 2024

After winning the bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, a performance at the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals 2024 was significant for the Canadian team, which was built with a mix of veterans and new blood and was coached by a maple softball legend, Kaleigh Rafter.

Canada recovered from an initial defeat against USA to win three games in a row before being defeated by Japan and facing Netherlands with the bronze medal on the line. In an instant classic, the North American team walked off with a Grand Slam to take the medal home.

Key Game: Netherlands 7 - 11 Canada. An instant classic with the bronze medal on the line.

France | WBSC Baseball5 World Cup

France is building their reputation as a Baseball5 powerhouse one tournament at a time and this was confirmed at the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup 2024. A team seemingly containing almost no weakness took the bronze medal in Hong Kong.

The European team lost three times - to Japan, Venezuela and Cuba - and their story during the World Cup was one of resilience. A key win during the Super Round against Chinese Taipei allowed them to play for the bronze medal and take revenge for the Super Round defeat to win a historic medal.

Key Game: France 2 - 0 Venezuela. The historic medal from France came via a revenge win against Venezuela.

USA | WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Finals 2024 presented by RAXUS

Finding a more energetic and fun team in a World Cup is hard. After failing to claim a medal in the previous two editions of the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup, this USA team was on a mission that was only stopped by Japan.

USA only lost once during the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup 2023/2024. That defeat was at the World Championship Final, but the run was historic, including defeating Japan, in one of the best games in the 2024 WBSC calendar, to stop an impressive 39-game unbeaten run in the game before the final.

Key Game: USA 4 - 3 Japan. One of the best games of the year resulted in a win that stopped Japan’s impressive unbeaten run.