Canada showcase plenty of talent on WBSC U-15 Women's Softball World Cup debut

With the Opening Round of the WBSC U-15 Women's Softball World Cup 2025 drawing to a close, world No. 6 Canada played an impressive game to shut out No. 10 Australia 7-0 in their final game of the first phase on Monday to finish the Opening Round with a 2-3 record. It won't, however, be enough to advance to the Super Round, which starts on Wednesday.

"It was not in our hands anymore," commented head coach Joanne Lye, referring to the extra-inning 4-3 defeat against Chinese Taipei on Sunday. "We struggled to make adjustments at the plate in that game.

"We played really good defence, we had really good pitching and we knew coming into today that our offence was the area we needed to focus on," Lye, a bronze medallist from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, added. "Keep doing what we were doing in all other areas, but focus on one pitch at a time at the plate and put our bats on the ball. That helped us put a lot of runs across the plate. Today's game shows these kids can do it, and we are excited about continuing to play.

"We have been working hard about playing one pitch at a time, and today was the first day we did it for a full game. We were able to stand the moment, not carry something that happened in the past into the present, not worry about the end of the game before we get there. That was the difference, the mindset of playing the game, one pitch at a time."

Canada's softball programme features a lot of talent, despite making their debut at this level having missed the inaugural WBSC U-15 Women's Softball World Cup two years ago. Still, there's a lot of territory to cover to scout properly.

"Our director of high performance, [National Team head coach and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist] Kaleigh Rafter, has travelled the country, running tryouts, running clinics," Lye added. "She has worked to spread her way of playing across the country. We hope to see that making an impact."

A lot of Canada's impressive softball talent was showcased during the Opening Round and likely to still be the case when the Placement Round starts on Wednesday.

Right-handed pitcher Rachel Clegg, who tops the tournament in strike outs (31), dominated Australia, allowing only a pair of walks and striking out 13 over five innings.

"I believe I had a lot of success with my curveball. I was very confident on the field today," said Clegg. who has been playing softball since she was four years old and now has dreams of playing College Softball.

Rylee Kobasew is another pure talent on Canada's roster. She put Canada ahead of Australia with an RBI-single and opened the score with a three-RBI triple.

"I finally started to feel my swing again," she said. "This whole tournament I've been struggling a bit. On that pitch, I got my foot down, kept my hands high and stayed with it, so I drove it."

Kobasew feels she had some ups and downs during the Opening Round. "Most of it was mental. I finally came to think this is a new day, forget about the rest. This helped a lot."

With two wins over Australia and Singapore and three defeats at the hands of Czechia, USA and Chinese Taipei, Canada will play in the Placement Round, but this won't chance Kobasew's attitude. "As a team what we can do is play one pitch at a time, play as hard as you can and fight until the end."

The slugger from British Columbia plays softball in Arizona and eyes a future in College Softball. "I started playing when I was six, now I play in a U-16 team in Arizona, USA. My goal is playing at the highest level I can play in College."