DUBLIN, Ireland – The U.S. Women’s National Team (WNT) has arrived in Dublin, Ireland ahead of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) World Cup – Group A Stage 1 event where the U.S. will look to finish atop its group for a chance to compete in the World Cup Finals next year. With 18 teams competing across three groups (Group A, B and C), Team USA will battle it out in the Group A event alongside five other countries in Dublin, Ireland while Group B teams will compete in Spain and Group C teams in Italy. Consisting of a two-stage format, the top two teams from each group in addition to two wild card choices will punch their ticket to Stage 2 – the XVII WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals – held July 15-21, 2024, in Italy.
“We are so excited to be here in Ireland as we begin our journey to earning a spot in the World Cup Finals next year,” said head coach, Heather Tarr. “Our coaching staff and athletes have been looking forward to this event all year long with the greatest athletes and teams from across the nation gathering in Europe to showcase how great and competitive our sport truly is. It’s going to be a great week of softball and we can’t wait to get started.”
Coming together for the first time this year, the Red, White and Blue will jumpstart its preparations for the highly touted World Cup with a series of practices throughout the next three days before kicking off tournament play on Tuesday.
Slated for July 11-15, a total of 19 games will be played in the Group A Stage 1 event as world-ranked No. 1 Team USA, No. 3 Chinese Taipei, No. 9 Australia, No. 16 Great Britain, No. 17 Ireland (host country) and No. 43 Botswana look to advance to the Finals set to take place next year. The Eagles will open up the tournament against Chinese Taipei on Tuesday, July 11 at 2 p.m. IST/8 a.m. CST followed by a pair of 3 p.m. IST/9 a.m. CST matchups against Botswana (Wednesday, July 12) and Australia (Thursday, July 13). The U.S. will close out opening round with matchups against Great Britain at 3 p.m. IST/9 a.m. CST and Ireland at 6:30 p.m. IST/12:30 p.m. CST on Friday, July 14. The top four teams will battle it out in the playoff round on Saturday, July 15 with the top two teams going head-to-head for a chance to advance to the Stage 2 Finals. The loser of the first play-off game will then take on the winner of the matchup between the third and fourth place teams for the second spot in the Finals, which will be held in 2024.
The WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Stage 1 event will be streamed via GameTime. Fans will have the option of three different services: Tournament Pass ($29.99), Group Pass ($12.99) or 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.
Led by head coach Heather Tarr and assistant coaches Cindy Ball-Malone, Tony Baldwin and Tim Walton, the U.S. looks to claim its fourth-consecutive WBSC Women’s World Championship title, having won the past three WBSC World Championships held in Birmingham, Ala. (2022), Chiba, Japan (2018) and Surrey, B.C., Canada (2016).
Announced earlier this year, the 2023 U.S. WNT World Cup Group A roster includes 14 returners from the 2022 season, including seven from the Canada Cup, five from The World Games, five from the Pan American Championship and six from the Japan All-Star Series. Also highlighting the squad are two members from the 2020 U.S. Olympic Softball Team that helped the Eagles earn silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Recently added to the roster as a replacement athlete is Kathryn Sandercock.
Click here to view the 2023 Women’s National Team World Cup roster »
“The World Cup Group A roster includes a group of very talented athletes selected from our athlete pool that have shown exceptional skill – not only in USA Softball related evaluations, but also on the collegiate and professional levels,” said Tarr. “It’s a versatile group with solid pitching in the circle, some of the best defensive players in the world and both power and speed at the plate.”
The selected athletes represent three athletic conferences (Pac-12 – 8, SEC – 6, Big 12 – 2), with six current and 10 former student-athletes from 10 NCAA Division I universities, highlighted by two members having won an NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS) National Championship with their respective university.
To learn more about the U.S. Women’s National Team Program, visit USASoftball.com.