It’s to be the first ever Under21 World Cup, a tournament that holds great importance on the final World Baseball Rankings in 2014, with the top 12 teams to earn the right to participate in the Premier12 tournament in 2015.
Group A: Taiwan, Czech Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea and Italy
Group B: Australia, Japan, Holland, Nicaragua and Venezuela
43 games, in ten days, that will be played at the Douliu Baseball Stadium and the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
Italy will debut at 12.30 pm local time (5.30 am in Italy) on Friday the 7th of November against New Zealand. Their second game will be against South Korea on the 8th of November, their third against Mexico on the 9th, their fourth game will be a matchup with the Czech Republic on the 10th, and finally on the 11th against the host Taiwan squad.
The tournament will take place in 3 stages, with the first two stages being round robins. Those moving onto stage 2 will be the top three teams out of groups A and B, while the two teams moving onto the finals will naturally be the top two out of the second round robin. The tournament will also feature a silver and bronze medal game, as well as other polling games with the participating countries hoping to rack up points for positioning in the world rankings, with the top 12 countries at year’s end being invited to participate in next year’s Premier12 tournament. Italy currently sits in 11th place on the world rankings list.
