World Baseball Softball Confederation Brings Event to Mexico

The World Baseball Softball Confederation has announced Guadalajara, Mexico, as host for the inaugural WBSC Coed Slow Pitch Softball World Cup from December 5–10, 2023.

The WBSC also unveiled the logo for the new competition, which features curves in the logo to symbolize the initials of the slow pitch discipline.

“The WBSC Coed Slow Pitch Softball World Cup marks another major milestone with the addition of this softball discipline bringing our World Cup portfolio to 15 events,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. “This new event brings new opportunities for athletes around the world to represent their countries at the highest level in a very popular discipline, with millions of people playing slow-pitch softball, both competitively or for leisure, around the world.”

The World Cup will be the second WBSC event to be held in Guadalajara. This will also be the second WBSC Softball World Cup staged in Mexico in 2023, with the U-18 Men’s Softball World Cup scheduled from November 11–19 in Hermosillo.

The WBSC Coed Slow Pitch Softball World Cup is the fourth WBSC mixed gender World Cup, behind the Baseball5 World Cup, the U-12 Mixed Softball World Cup and the Youth Baseball5 World Cup. Among the particular rules for this event, pitcher/catcher may not be of the same gender; the four infielder positions must be filled by two males and two females.

Twelve teams will compete in the event, with six of them already qualified through continental qualification tournaments. China, Philippines and Chinese Taipei have qualified from the Asia region, while Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands are in from the Europe region. The Americas will have three qualifiers, with Oceania and Africa each getting one. As the host, Mexico will also compete.