CASTIONS DI STRADA, Italy (July 11, 2024) – The U.S. Women’s National Team (WNT) has arrived in Castions di Strada, Italy ahead of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) World Cup Finals where the U.S. will look to finish atop the podium for the 13th time in program history. The Eagles recently led an undefeated campaign at the 2023 WBSC World Cup Group A Stage 1 Event last year in Ireland where they secured participation in the Finals.
“The U.S. Women’s National Team is excited to have an opportunity to compete for a gold medal at the 2024 WBSC World Cup,” said head coach Heather Tarr. “We are really happy that we get a chance to prepare for the next few days before the competition,” she added.
Coming together after competing in the 2024 Exhibition Matchups against the Oklahoma City Spark in June, the U.S. will jumpstart its preparations for the highly touted World Cup with a series of practices throughout the next four days, along with a scrimmage against host country Italy, before kicking off tournament play on Monday.
Slated for July 15-21, a total of six games will be played in the World Cup Finals as world-ranked No. 1 Team USA will open the tournament in Group A alongside No. 5 Canada, No. 15 China and No. 6 Italy (host country), while No. 10 Australia, No. 2 Japan, No. 8 Netherlands and No. 3 Puerto Rico will battle it out in Group B. The top two teams from each group will advance to the Super Round for a chance to compete in the Medal Round. The game schedule is as follows:
- USA vs Canada — Monday, July 15 at 4:30 p.m. CET (9:30 a.m. CT)
- USA vs Italy — Tuesday, July 16 at 8:30 p.m. CET (1:30 p.m. CT)
- USA vs China — Wednesday, July 17 at 2 p.m. CET (7 a.m. CT)
- Super Round — Thursday, July 18 to Friday, July 19
- Medal Round — Saturday, July 20
View the complete 2024 WBSC World Cup schedule »
The WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Finals will be streamed via GameTime. Fans will have the option of two different services: Tournament Pass ($12.99) or Daily Pass ($7.99). Tournament Pass subscribers will have full access to all 22 games of the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup. For more information on subscriptions, click here. Fans can also 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 Kyla Holas, Jimmy Kolatis and Tim Walton, the U.S. looks to claim its fourth-consecutive WBSC Women’s World Cup 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 2024 U.S. WNT World Cup roster includes eight returners from the 2023 World Cup Group Stage event. Also highlighting the squad are four 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 are Kelly Maxwell and Jocelyn Alo.
“Our team expects to bring dominant pitching, great defense and timely hitting. We can’t wait to see how good we can get as we grow together as one unit throughout the tournament,” said Tarr.
The selected athletes represent four athletic conferences (SEC – 8, Big Ten – 5, Big 12 – 2, ACC – 1), with three 2024 graduates and 13 former student-athletes from 11 NCAA Division I universities.
To learn more about the U.S. Women’s National Team program, visit USASoftball.com.