As the World Baseball Classic looms large in 2017, several prospective Team Australia representatives will take on the world’s best at the 2016 U23 Baseball Cup in Monterrey, Mexico this week.
Managed by Team Australia Assistant Coach Tony Harris, the U23 World Cup Team will head into a tough, but manageable group stage.
Games against #1 ranked Japan and #4 ranked Chinese Taipei loom as Australia’s toughest tests, but with games against Austria (#33), Nicaragua (#18) and Argentina (#27) qualification to the Super Round is far from impossible.
After a long selection process, Head Coach Tony Harris settled on his squad that will take on the best U23 baseball players in the world, as Australia take on Austria in their opening pool game on 28 October in Polideportivo.
"The selection process took longer than anticipated, but at the end of the day I'm really pleased with the quality of the squad," Harris said.
"We're excited to see how this team performs on the world stage, it's a great opportunity for some of the younger members of the team to see how they match up against the best of the best."
With the top three teams in each group qualifying for the Super Round, three victories in the group stage would go a long way to guaranteeing a solid number of WBSC World Ranking Points. Finishing sixth in the U23 World Cup earns 355 World Ranking Points, with the winner receiving 690 points.
Highlighting the squad are 10 of the men who represented Australia at the 2014 U21 World Cup, and of those 10, only Jacob Younis (Honkbalweek 2016) and Guy Edmonds (2014 MLB Opening Series) have represented the open Men’s team, The Southern Thunder.
The 2014 U21 Baseball World Cup saw Australia finish sixth after a narrow loss against the Czech Republic in their final game of the tournament.
Three of the youngest members of the squad come into the U23 setup after representing Australia at the U18 World Cup in 2015. Jye Deeble (Central Arizona), Josh Hendrickson (Ranger College) and Mitch Neunborn (North Iowa) all spent time in the American College system in 2016, and will be three names to watch in the future.
To see Australia’s schedule at the tournament, click here. To view the team selected for the tournament, click here. To stay up to date with results from the U23 World Cup, click here.