WBSC Coed Slow Pitch Softball World Cup 2023 awarded to Guadalajara, Mexico; Dates confirmed in December

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today announced the host city and dates of the first-ever WBSC Coed Slow Pitch Softball World Cup, the newest WBSC World Cup. The historic event will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 5 to 10 December, 2023.

“The WBSC Coed Slow Pitch Softball World
Cup marks another major milestone with the addition of this softball disciplinebringing our World Cup portfolio to 15 events,” said WBSC President, RiccardoFraccari. “This new event brings new opportunities for athletes around theworld to represent their countries at the highest level in a very populardiscipline, with millions of people playing slow-pitch softball, bothcompetitively or for leisure, around the world.”

The Coed Slow Pitch Softball World Cupwill be the second WBSC event to be held in Guadalajara. The Jalisco capitalhosted in 2019 the Group A of the II Premier12, WBSC’s premier internationalbaseball competition. At the same time, this will be the second WBSC SoftballWorld Cup staged in Mexico in 2023, with the U-18 Men’s Softball World Cupscheduled from 11 to 19 November in Hermosillo, Mexico.

The WBSC Coed Slow Pitch Softball World Cup is the fourth WBSC mixed gender World Cup, behind the successfully launched Baseball5 World Cup, which was held in Mexico City last year, the U-12 Mixed Softball World Cup, and the maiden Youth Baseball5 World Cup. Among the particular rules for this event, pitcher/catcher may not be of the same gender; the four infielder positions must be filled by two males and two females.

The WBSC 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 slow pitch discipline: SP.

A total of 12 teams will compete in theinaugural edition of this event, with six of them already qualified throughcontinental qualification tournaments:

• Africa: 1
• Americas: 3
• Asia: China, Philippines, Chinese Taipei
• Europe: Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands
• Oceania: 1
• Wild Card / Host: Mexico

The venue(s), groups and schedule of the tournament will be announced at a later stage.