WBSC U-23 Men's Softball World Cup 2026: World Championship Final Blog
Welcome to the World Championship Final of the WBSC U-23 Men's Softball World Cup 2026 in Sincelejo, Colombia.
The game is available on the WBSC’s official streaming platform, GameTime.
<p><a href="https://gametime.sport/"><img src="https://static.wbsc.org/uploads/federations/0/cms/photos/359a165a-79b0-f0ca-5118-7dd277ea0ecc.png" alt="U23 MSWC GameTime" width="100%" height="auto"></a></p>
This marks the second consecutive WBSC U-23 Men’s Softball World Cup final between the two nations, following their meeting in Parana 2023, where Australia claimed the title with a 1-0 win.
Four players from that game are competing in Sincelejo. Hitto Nagayoshi and Koki Yagi started for Japan in 2023, while Jack Besgrove and Haydan Dobe return for Australia.
Australia enter the final on a 10-game winning streak, dating back to their last two games in 2023 and their first eight in Sincelejo, and hold a 15-2 overall record in the competition. Japan, meanwhile, are 13-4 overall.
The two teams have met three times across the two editions. Japan won 8-1 in the 2023 Super Round, while Australia took the final 1-0. In Sincelejo, Australia edged Japan 6-5 in nine innings in a Super Round thriller.
Live Blog
Jack Besgrove gets the start for Australia, while Rio Takahashi takes the circle for Japan.
Japan struck early in the top of the first inning. Ryuki Tsuda led off with a walk, and a defensive error soon put runners on the corners with no outs. Koki Yagi opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly, and Rikuto Yamamoto followed with an RBI triple to the left-field corner, extending the lead to 2-0.
Rio Takahashi is delivering a strong performance in the circle. Through four scoreless innings, he has recorded four strikeouts while allowing just one walk.