Off the back of a successful 2023 Women’s Championship hosted at Altona Ballpark in April, Baseball Australia is pleased to announce the Emeralds squad that will represent Australia at the 2023 World Cup.
With a group packed with experience and talented youth players, it is an exciting time for women’s baseball in Australia ahead of what will be a blockbuster year for international baseball.
Emeralds Manager Jason Pospishil will lead the group with the support of an accomplished coaching staff that includes Olympian and Major League Baseballer Chris Oxspring, World Cup Silver medallist and Women’s Team Victoria Manager Samantha Hamilton, Assistant Director of Baseball Operations and Women’s High-Performance Manager at Brisbane Bandits Lisa Norrie, Ursula Howard and Tammy Ong.
The squad will begin preparations immediately with Manager Jason Pospishil ready to change the game of women’s baseball.
“The quality of this squad is highlighted by the standard of players that just missed out on selection. We made it very clear to our playing group in 2019 what the international game demands and we are very confident that the 25 players we have selected can meet those demands. Due to the five-year hiatus of the Women’s World Cup, we are essentially “re-setting” the program and the coaching staff we have assembled are fully committed to building our program and achieving our goal of qualifying for the World Cup Super-Round stage next year in 2024.”
“The players are now fully accountable to preparing themselves to a standard that international play requires within their relevant State High Performance Program. The support that these players will receive from our High-Performance staff around the country will encompass current best practice methods so we are extremely confident that we will be as well prepared as can be heading into the tournament. I think the success of our WBC team highlights that we can compete with anybody on the world stage.”
Australia will be one of six teams placed in Group A with Canada, USA, Mexico and two qualifiers coming from the upcoming Asian Women’s Baseball Championship. The Emeralds will battle the competition in Group A action in Thunder Bay, Canada in August 2023.
Group B will take part in Japan in September.
Unlike other years and editions of the World Cup, this competition will take place over two years.
The Top Two teams from each group, plus two wild cards, will advance to the final group stage in August 2024 where the competition will return to Thunder Bay to determine the World Champion.
The 2024 tournament will be the ninth edition of the Women’s Baseball World Cup. Australia has traditionally fared well at the World Cup. They’ve finished in the Top 4 on six occasions with their best result being a silver medal in 2010.
Stay up to date with all the Women’s World Cup Baseball preparation on baseball.com.au and at our newly launched A League of Her Own Website https://www.aleagueofherown.com.au/