The Korean women’s national baseball team, led by head coach Yang Sang-moon, heads to Thunder Bay, Canada on the 6th to participate in the ‘2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup (WBSC)’ preliminary round.
The goal of the Korean토토사이트 national team (ranked 10th in the world) in Group A of the preliminary round is 3 wins and 2 losses. It is a strategy to do our best in matches with Australia (8th), Hong Kong (11th), and Mexico (12th) rather than against the strong Canada (3rd) and the United States (4th).
To advance to the finals (Super Round), you need to place 1st and 2nd in Group A of the preliminary round. In that case, regardless of the number of cases, advance to the finals is confirmed. However, when it comes to third place in the group, the number of cases arises.
The reason is because of the host country of the finals, ‘Canada’. The Canadian women’s baseball team has already confirmed their advance to the finals by receiving a wild card (WC) as a host country for the ‘2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup (WBSC)’ finals. If Canada does not finish in the top three and Korea finishes third in the group, Korea will advance to the finals not voluntarily, but unwillingly.
‘2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup (WBSC)’ preliminary grouping
If Canada does not finish in the top 3 of their group, they will have to wait and see the results of their Group B matches. The World Baseball Softball Association (WBSC), the organizing committee of the tournament, stated in the rules of the tournament, “If the host country of the finals does not finish in the top 3 in its group, the country with the better performance in the previous competition among the top 3 in Groups A and B will advance to the Super Round.”
In the 8th Women’s Baseball World Cup held in Florida, USA in 2018, Korea ranked 10th in the final. The national team should pay attention to the results of the countries belonging to Group B of the preliminary round.
In the previous competition, 2018, Japan ranked 1st, Taiwan 2nd, Venezuela 5th, Cuba 8th and Puerto Rico 9th. All of them were ranked higher than Korea. If any of these countries finish in third place in Group B of the qualifiers, Korea will be eliminated.
With Canada finishing third or lower and South Korea finishing third in their group, their only chance of qualifying is for France to finish third in Group B. France did not participate in the last World Cup, falling behind South Korea in the rankings of the previous tournament.
2018 8th Women’s Baseball World Cup final rankings. photo source | WBSC.
However, Canada’s chances of not finishing third in the group are slim. Since the preliminaries are also held in Canada’s own country, there is little chance that the Canadian team will make a mistake in the game. If so, it is realistic for Korea to aim for third place in the group, hoping that Canada will take first or second place in the group.
Group A of the preliminary round will be held from August 8th to 13th, based on local time in Canada, and Group B of the preliminary round will be held in Miyoshi, Japan from September 13th to 18th. In the first half of next year, the top 6 out of the 12 participating countries will gather in Thunder Bay, Canada to compete for medals.
Pitcher Kim Bo-mi (34), who participated in the ‘8th Women’s Baseball World Cup’ held in Florida, USA in 2018, will be selected for the national team again this year and will also participate in the ‘9th Women’s Baseball World Cup’ held in Thunder Bay, Canada. Kim Bo-mi became the best in the pitching team this year after five years.
Following the previous tournament, Korea was again in Group 1 with the United States. Kim Bo-mi, who pitched in relief against the United States at the time and gave up three runs in one inning, recalled, “I have strong memories of the terrible quality of the batted ball in the game against the United States because the power of the hitters was so good rather than the pitcher.” He said, “The foul ball was also a home run hit. His batted ball was similar to that of an adult male. She said that even though the national team infielders at the time were talented players, it was scary when American players hit the ball,” she added.
Shin Nuri, an outfielder who participated in the 8th Women’s Baseball World Cup held in Florida, USA in 2018. He suddenly became the best member of the 2023 women’s baseball team. photo source | WBSC.
The national team has been practicing fast ball response in preparation for the strong US, Canada, Australia and Mexico. Outfielder Shin Nuri (36), the first member of the national team, said, “It was a very good experience to play a practice game with a domestic middle school baseball team before participating in the ‘2023 Asian Cup (BFA)’ held in Hong Kong this year. Thanks to his familiarity with the fast balls of male players, he felt that the fastballs of pitchers from other countries he met in the Asian Cup were worth hitting.”
Even after he went to the Asian Cup, he continued training with quick ball response. Shin Nuri said, “If you look at recent practice games, our hitters have cut or made hits with most of the fastballs thrown by middle school male players. Everyone has confidence in one fastball,” he said.
In addition to practice games with middle school elite baseball players, he is also conducting individual training. Outfielder Ahn Su-ji, who is looking for a batting practice field a little far from home, said, “I am training to respond to the ball at 110 km per hour or more.”
Kim Bo-mi said, “The national team players have continued to practice focusing on fastballs. Since we are coping with the fast ball better than when we first gathered and started training, I think we will be able to show a good performance if we focus on choosing the ball well in the world competition and compete for the game by aiming for the fast ball.”
Genevieve Become has been selected for the Australian women’s national baseball team. photo source | Melbourne Aces Club.
The national team is determined to capture Hong Kong and Mexico without fail, and to do their best to play against Australia, which is lower in the world rankings than Canada and the United States. The Australian national team includes Genevieve Beacom (18), the first female player in the Australian Professional Baseball League (ABL) to throw a fastball at 136 km/h. The national team lost 1-7 to Australia in the previous tournament.
On the other hand, the Korean national team had the experience of successfully advancing to the finals for the first time in history by taking second place in the group at the ‘7th Women’s Baseball World Cup’ held in Gijang-gun, Busan in 2016. At that time, 12 countries were divided into 3 groups for the preliminaries.