Our South Africa Baseball U15 team has arrived in Colombia and played their first game at the WBSC Baseball U15 World Cup. After months of preparation and training across the provinces, the team is now ready to compete in six games in Barranquilla and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.
Day one opened on Friday with South Africa facing Mexico in the tournament’s opening match. Despite a strong effort, the game ended with a 13-1 result in favor of Mexico.
Twelve teams are participating in the tournament, divided into two groups for the Opening Round. Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guam, Italy, Japan, and Puerto Rico are in Group A, while Mexico, Nicaragua, Netherlands, South Africa, Chinese Taipei, and Venezuela are in Group B. A total of 50 games will be played in this tournament, with the World Championship Final scheduled for August 25 at the Edgar Renteria Stadium in Barranquilla.
South Africa will play their next match against Nicaragua on Saturday at 5:30 pm (SA Time), followed by games against Venezuela on Monday, Chinese Taipei on Tuesday, and The Netherlands on Wednesday, before the playoffs begin.
South Africa’s Manager, Clive Pretorius, is not only focused on this tournament but also on the broader development of baseball in South Africa. He implemented a six-month trial process to make the final team selection. Pretorius is quoted on the WBSC website as saying, “Our objective is to grow our players from strength to strength. Baseball is not the national sport in our country, not even a top-10 sport. So if we can improve from tournament to tournament, it will help us a great deal moving forward in developing players. We’re probably more prepared than we have been in previous years, as we had a full 12-week training with the majority of this squad, but we haven’t played a single game as a team yet. So tomorrow, it’s going to be a big test of what we’re going to do in this tournament.”
The team is led by Head Coach Clive Pretorius, with Paul Van der Merwe, Thabang Letsoalo, and Gareth Long serving as Assistant Coaches.
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