OTTAWA-Canada’s Junior National Team will be placed into a pool with Chinese Taipei, Japan, Venezuela, Czech Republic and Mexico at the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) 18U World Championship in Taichung, Taiwan August 30-September 8.
The IBAF announced the groups for the 12-team event today which includes 10 teams from the 2012 IBAF 18U World Championship where Canada picked up the silver medal after a 6-2 loss to the United States in the gold medal game.
The other group of six includes defending champion United States, Colombia, South Korea, Australia, Italy and Cuba who will return to the event after missing out in 2012.
Cuba has won 11 gold medals in the events history which began in 1981 and has been played 25 times since.
The main venue for the event will be Intercontinental Stadium in Taichung which recently played host to the World Baseball Classic in March.
Five players from Canada’s silver medal winning team in 2012 (Gareth Morgan, Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill, Travis Seabrooke and Owen Spiwak) are eligible to play for Canada in Taichung.
The Junior National Team will leave May 22nd for the Dominican Republic where they will play an 11-game schedule against Dominican Summer League clubs. The juniors will wrap up the tour on May 30th with a contest against some of the Dominican Republic’s top unsigned amateur talent at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo.
A tour of the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) is scheduled for early July before the final selection camp for the 18U Worlds gets underway on Australia’s Gold Coast August 17-26.
The IBAF will announce the schedule for the 18U World Championships at a later date.
