The nation’s best 10 to 12-year old baseball players will be playing for a chance to represent New Zealand at the World Baseball Softball Confederation U12 Baseball World Cup by sending a team to the region’s top qualifying tournament, which may be held in New Zealand.

Until now, Baseball New Zealand has focused solely on playing at the annual U13 Cal Ripken World Series in the United States, but with numbers growing substantially at this age group a decision has been made to focus on both now, along with regional Little League and Pony Baseball, too, which now means the country will participate in each of the major youth baseball leagues globally.

“This is a such a positive development for this age group now with two competitions to focus on,” says Baseball New Zealand CEO Ryan Flynn, who stressed that the focus for baseball is the country’s youngest ballplayers. “This country produces great athletes in bat and ball sports and with the current growth in the sport happening at the young end of the spectrum, the time is right to expand our focus to both tournaments, and others, too.

“We have had some success at the prestigious Cal Ripken World Series, where in recent years we have beaten baseball powers Australia and Canada, and nearly took down eventual champion Japan, too,” said Flynn, who added that the Oceania U12 tournament will be held in the southern Oceania region and New Zealand has put in a bid to host the tournament in late December 2018/early January 2019. “The opportunity to match up against the best youth players in this region in the qualifying tournament was just too good to pass up with the level of talent we now have in this country.”

Two years ago, the Ripken World Series moved from its Aberdeen, Maryland base to a brand new facility in Branson, Missouri and the New Zealand U13 All Star team will compete there in August for a second straight year. Flynn says the program’s coaches are excited to see more teams and players than ever participate in this year’s United Airlines U13 Championships (in April) in what is arguably the most important domestic event on baseball’s calendar.

“We have played in five consecutive (Ripken World Series) tournaments now and another select group of younger players, with some who have experience at the Ripken tournament, will now have a chance to represent their country,” said Flynn, who added that many of the players on these national sides are now from the likes of Tauranga, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Christchurch and Nelson due to the sport’s impressive and continued growth.

Following the Cal Ripken World Series in August, U12 National Coaches will be appointed and trials will take place at the beginning of the new season to build a squad ready to compete in January. Stay tuned to Baseball New Zealand’s website and social media pages for additional details about this exciting announcement for youth baseball in New Zealand.

Article added: Thursday 21 June 2018