II WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Group A - Day 1 Live Blog: Chinese Taipei with the lead over New Zealand
With an exciting Opening Day, the WBSC II Women’s Softball World Cup will start today in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with three exciting games. The Opening Ceremony is scheduled at 10am, followed by the games between No. 33 New Zealand vs No. 4 Chinese Taipei; No. 33 Colombia vs No. 22 Brazil; and No. 13 Great Britain vs Czechia. You can watch all the games on GameTime.
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During the WBSC Opening Ceremony, the tournament was declared officially open by WBSC Executive Vice President Softball Craig Cress.
"This tournament has been the beginning of the Olympic career for many athletes, with Tokyo 2020 being a perfect example," he said. "Of the 90 players who participated in the last Olympic Games Softball competition, 46 played the U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup in the early stages of their career. I can't wait to see many of these young players here in Brazil becoming proud Olympians in Los Angeles 2028 and beyond."
The tournament is being played at the renovated Estadio Municipal Mie Nishi in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is the game schedule for today.
Key Links
- WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Group Stage format
- Schedule/live scoring
- Live Streaming
- Live clips on X
- Highlights
- Photos
- WBSC/KONAMI Women's Softball World Ranking
Group A's second game will see South Americans neighbours Colombia and Brazil going face to face for the first time in the history of this competition. However these two teams are familiar since they played on 4 April this year for the Pan American Championship in Monteria, Colombia. Brazil defeated Colombia, 10-6. The game will start at 3pm.
To close the first day of competition, Czechia and Great Britain will play at 6pm. This will be their second match i the history of the competition. They met on 3 July 2013 in the World Cup in Brampton, Canada, with a victory for the British squad, 3-2. Both teams collided last year during the European Championship Round Robin 2. Czechia downed Great Britain, 9-1 in five innings, en route to their second consecutive European title.
Key News
- WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup - Group A Preview: Six teams seek ticket to Finals in fierce competition
- 10 things to know about the WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup 2024 Group A
- Watch WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Group A live on GameTime; Broadcast rights awarded in Mexico, Nicaragua, Taiwan
- WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup: A bright future for Olympic softball
- WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Group A - By The Numbers
- Mie Nishi Municipal Stadium re-inaugurated, ready to host WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Group A
- Meet Sao Paulo: One of the biggest cities in the world welcomes WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Group A
New Zealand 4 - 6 Chinese Taipei
Top 6th - New Zealand put together a fbig inning. With two outs, and two runners on, Maysen Kurene-Iwikau singled in the first run of the game for her team. Then Mariangi Waipara hit a line drive single to right field, misplayed by right fielder Yu-Hsin Chiu, allowing Waipara to touch all the bases and score in an electric play. The game is 6-4 now.
Top 5th - For the second consecutive inning Chinese Taipei complete a double play. Second baseman Wei-Chi Lin gloves a line-drive and retires the runner at first.
Bottom 4th - Chinese Taipei add one more on a defensive error. Pei-Chieh Hsiao walked, moved to second with a Yu-Ching Lo single, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. She scored her team's sixth run of the game on a miscue. It's 6-0 for Chinese Taipei.
Top 4th - Kaiyah Ratu connects the first New Zealand hit of the tournament. She was followed by Maysen Kurene-Iwikau, who lined to third for a double play.
Bottom 3rd - Chinese Taipei mount a three-run rally, using a walk and three singles to take a 5-0 lead. Ji-Jhen Cheng and Yen-Ting Chiu with the RBIs. The Asians lead 5-0.
Bottom 2nd - Chen-Hsuan Chang hit a one-out triple down the left field line and scored on a single by Wei-Chi Lin. Chinese Taipei's second baseman connected an outside-corner pitch, hitting it between third base and shortstop for a base hit. They hold a 2-0 lead over New Zealand.
Bottom 1st - Chinese Taipei take the lead in their first at bat. Yu-Ling Wu singled to left field with the first hit of the tournament. One pitch later, Yu-Lan Wang hit a line drive to the left field corner for an RBI double to give Chinese Taipei the early lead in the match. The Asians lead 1-0.
Starting pitchers - Yi-Ting Chou (TPE) and McKenzie Bailey-McDowell
Preview - Two teams with a long history in this competition will open the WBSC U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Group A. New Zealand and Chinese Taipei, with 11 and 13 participations respectively, will face each other in Game 1 of the competition. Back in 2019, they also played on Opening Day of the World Cup in Irvine, USA, when the Asian squad scored two in the bottom of the seventh to clinch a close 7-6 victory over the Junior White Sox. This was the last time they met in a U-18 Women's Softball World Cup. First pitch is scheduled at noon (all local times).