International News: Rain Cancels Friday Games at WBSC World Cup, Undefeated USA & Great Britain to Meet Saturday

The following update is courtesy of USA & Great Britain Softball…

DUBLIN, Ireland — Due to rain, today’s games against Great Britain and Ireland were canceled for Team USA and the Opening Round came to a close.

The U.S. will advance to the WBSC World Cup Group A playoff round where it will take on Great Britain for a chance to punch their ticket to the World Cup finals next year.

The two teams advance to the playoff round with three wins apiece while Chinese Taipei and Australia will compete as the No. 3 and 4 teams.

Opening Round Notes for Team USA:

• Team USA and Great Britain each enter the playoff round with a 3-0 record
• Tomorrow’s game will determine the first-two teams that will punch their ticket to the WBSC World Cup Finals held in Italy next year
• The U.S. offense leads in five categories:
  • Batting Average: Sis Bates (.571), Hannah Flippen (.545)
  • Home runs: Ali Aguilar (1)
  • RBI: Hannah Flippen (5)
  • Triples: Aliyah Andrews (2)
  • On-base-percentage: Sahvanna Jaquish (.667), Hannah Flippen (.583)
• The U.S. pitching staff leads in two categories:
  • ERA: Megan Faraimo (0.00)
  • Hits Allowed: Montana Fouts (0)
• Additional information can be found–including the game played today–by clicking HERE.

Great Britain’s Undefeated Start

Great Britain Softball is currently playing in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Softball World Cup Pool A, hosted by the Irish Softball Federation in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.

The tournament got underway this past Tuesday, with Great Britain playing in, and defeating Australia in the tournament’s first game. There are three pools – Pool B is in Valencia, Spain, while Pool C is split between Castions di Strada and Buttrio in Italy.

The top two teams from each pool, along with two wild card teams from across the tournament, will advance to the 2024 World Cup Final in Castions di Strada and Buttrio – Italy will automatically qualify for that stage as the host, so there are seven other teams that will join them.

Great Britain Senior Women’s National Fastpitch Softball Team has undergone a massive transformation across the last 18 months under Head of Performance Gary Anderson, with Tara Henry taking over as Head Coach and bringing in a new, internationally experienced staff.

With an uplift in National Squads Support Funding earlier this year, the team was able to hold trials in Oklahoma at Oklahoma State University, and a training camp at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre to prepare for the tournament.

As softball is not currently an Olympic sport and will not be played at the Paris 2024 games, UK Sport is unable to fully fund Great Britain as an Olympic team until the sport returns to the games; however, with the 2028 games being held in Los Angeles, and with two Major League Baseball teams in the close vicinity, fans of softball in the UK expect positive news about the return of softball to the Olympic program later this year.

Despite this, UK Sport and the National Lottery have been “incredibly supportive with the programme… above and beyond our expectations,” according to Chris Knoblock, the Press Officer for Great Britain Softball.

So far, the team has had great success on the field, upending the world rankings in their first two games by defeating Australia, the 5^th place team at the Tokyo Olympic games, on Tuesday, then defeating Chinese Taipei yesterday, the world’s No. 3 ranked team.

This is the first time Great Britain has defeated both of those teams in program history and Great Britain’s highest-ever world ranking is 12^th, with the team currently ranked 16^th despite winning a Silver medal at the 2022 European Softball Championships.

Great Britain players and coaches finds themselves in great position to qualify for next year’s final, provided they are able to win one of the two qualifying games following pool play.

Those qualifying games will take place Saturday.

How to Watch the Games

Note: the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Stage 1 event is being streamed via GameTime.

Fans will have the option of three different services:

1. Tournament Pass ($29.99)
2. Group Pass ($12.99)
3. Daily Pass ($5.99)

Tournament Pass subscribers will have full access to all 57 games across all three Groups of the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup, while Group Pass subscribers will have full access to the 19 games played in the specific group that is subscribed for (Group A, B or C).

For more information on subscriptions, click here.

Fans will also have the opportunity to follow along via live stats by following the U.S. Women’s National Team on Gamechanger.

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