Women's Baseball World Cup

Women's Baseball World Cup

Most recent season or competition: 2014 Women's Baseball World Cup
Sport	Baseball
Founded	2004
No. of teams	8 (in 2014)
Continent	International
Most recent champion(s)	Japan
Most titles	Japan (4 times)

The Women's Baseball World Cup is an international tournament in which national women's baseball teams from around the world compete. Through its 2012 edition, it was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation; following the 2013 merger of the IBAF with the International Softball Federation, future tournaments will be sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). In the six times it has been held, the tournament has been won twice by United States and most recently four times by Japan in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014.

History

The inaugural Women's Baseball World Cup was held in Edmonton, Canada from July 30 to August 8, 2004 after having been chartered by the International Baseball Federation in 2002. Before this tournament the only other international women's baseball tournament was the Women's World Series, which usually involved only three or four nations, usually Australia, Canada, Japan and occasionally the USA.

Competition Format

All competing nations played one game versus each opponent. The top four teams advanced to the semifinals. Ties in standings were broken by head-to-head record. The first place team played versus the fourth place team and the second place team played the third place team. The semifinal losers then played bronze medal game, with the winner earning third place and the loser receiving fourth place. The semifinal winners play in the finals, with the winner earning first place and the loser receiving second place. All regulation games are seven innings in length with the exception to the mercy rule applied to a ten run lead after 5 innings or 4 innings with a twelve run lead.

Results

Year	Final Host		Final				Semi finalists			Number of teams
			Champions	Score	Runners-Up		3rd Place	4th Place
2004 Details	Edmonton		United States	2 – 0	Japan		Canada	Australia		5
2006 Details	Taipei		United States	13 – 11	Japan		Canada	Australia		7
2008 Details	Matsuyama		Japan	12 – 2 (F/5)	Canada		United States	Australia		8
2010 Details	Maracay		Japan	13 – 3 (F/5)	Australia		United States	Venezuela		11
2012 Details	Edmonton		Japan	3 – 0	United States		Canada	Australia		8
2014 Details	Miyazaki		Japan	3 – 0	United States		Australia	Canada		8
2016 Details	Busan

Notes

Medal table

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Japan	4	2	0	6
2	United States	2	2	2	6
3	Canada	0	1	3	4
4	Australia	0	1	1	2

Participating Nations

• United States
• Japan
• Canada
• Australia
• Chinese Taipei
• Cuba
• Hong Kong
• Netherlands
• Venezuela
• Puerto Rico
• South Korea

See also

• Baseball World Cup - Men's
• Women's Baseball World Series (defunct)
• Baseball awards
• World Cup (all sports)