The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced the schedule for the XVII Women’s Softball World Cup Finals, the first-ever played with the new two-stage format.
The Italian Baseball Softball Federation (FIBS) will host the tournament in Castions di Strada, in the north-eastern Friuli Venezia Giulia region, from 15 to 21 July 2024.
Four games per day are scheduled from 15 to 19 July before the World Championship Final and Bronze Medal Game take place on Saturday, 20 July.
World No. 2 Japan will take on No. 10 Australia in the opening game on 15 July at 11:00 (local time). After the Opening Ceremony, scheduled at 19:30, hosts Italy, ranked sixth in the world, will play world No. 15 China at 20:30.
The eight participants in the Finals qualified through the World Cup’s Group Stage, which took place earlier this year.
World No. 1 USA and Australia booked a Finals ticket from Group A, which was hosted by Ireland from 11 to 15 July 2023. No. 3 Puerto Rico and No. 8 Netherlands advanced through Group B, hosted by Spain from 18 to 22 July 2023. Japan and No. 5 Canada reached the Finals through Group C, hosted by Italy from 22 to 26 July 2023. Italy (Group C) and China (Group B) advanced as the best third-place finishers.
The eight National Teams are split into two groups for the Finals. The hosts, Italy, will face Canada, China and the United States in Group A. Group B includes Australia, Japan, Netherlands and Puerto Rico.
After a group round-robin, the top two finishers of each group advance to the Super Round, while the number three and four teams will compete in the Placement Round.
The number one and two seeds after the Super Round will then compete in the World Championship Final. The number three and four finishers will play for bronze.
Start times for the Super Round, Placement Round and Finals will be announced at a later stage.
The United States are the three-time defending World Champions. They won the 2022 World Games to earn their latest title.
Credit: WSBC