{"id":33176,"date":"2019-04-24T19:59:12","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T02:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=33176"},"modified":"2019-04-24T20:21:29","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T03:21:29","slug":"50-days-to-first-ever-wbsc-mens-softball-world-championship-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=33176","title":{"rendered":"50 days to first-ever WBSC Men\u2019s Softball World Championship in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/50_days_MSWC_2019-1080x608.jpg?fit=1024%2C576\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33178\" width=\"256\" height=\"144\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/50_days_MSWC_2019-1080x608.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/50_days_MSWC_2019-1080x608-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/50_days_MSWC_2019-1080x608-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/50_days_MSWC_2019-1080x608-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/50_days_MSWC_2019-1080x608-750x420.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 256px) 100vw, 256px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Today marks 50 days before the first pitch of the WBSC Men\u2019s Softball World Championship&nbsp;2019, the world\u2019s highest-level softball competition, which will be played in Prague and Havlickuv Brod, Czech Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pinnacle men\u2019s softball event will be played for the first time ever in Europe and will open on 13 June, World Softball Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best 16 softball teams in the world will gather in the Czech Republic to battle&nbsp;<em>For the Title of World Champion.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A&nbsp;72-game schedule was announced for the global competition, with&nbsp;National Teams coming from all five Olympic continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Group A<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Group A houses&nbsp;defending world champion\/top-ranked New Zealand along with&nbsp;No. 3 Japan, No. 5 Argentina, No. 7 Czech Republic, No. 9 Mexico, No. 13 Botswana, No. 17 Philippines and No. 24 Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All eight nations in the group have previously advanced to the playoffs at least one time&nbsp;in the past&nbsp;15 editions; however, New Zealand has been the only squad&nbsp;able to claim the World Championship.&nbsp;The New Zealand Black Sox are the most decorated National Team in history with a total of seven world&nbsp;crowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand will open the tournament against host Czech Republic on&nbsp;Thursday,&nbsp;13 June,&nbsp;at Svoboda Ballpark in Prague, after the Opening Ceremony, in the only game of the day. The other six teams will open&nbsp;one day later,&nbsp;at Hippos Arena in Havlickuv Brod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/group_a_schedule_4.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/group_a_schedule_4-300x169.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today marks 50 days before the first pitch of the WBSC Men\u2019s Softball World Championship&nbsp;2019, the world\u2019s highest-level softball competition, which will be played in Prague and Havlickuv Brod, Czech Republic. The pinnacle men\u2019s softball event will be played for the first time ever in Europe and will open on 13 June, World Softball Day. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,28,9,82],"tags":[426,425,983],"class_list":{"0":"post-33176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe","8":"category-featured","9":"category-international","10":"category-wbsc","11":"tag-czechsoftballassociation","12":"tag-wbsc2019","13":"tag-wbscmen2019","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33182,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33176\/revisions\/33182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}