MEXICO CITY -- The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced the locations and groups for the II WBSC Premier12™ on Wednesday at a press conference in Mexico City. The Premier12 is the top international baseball competition in 2019 and will serve as the first qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The II WBSC Premier12™ will take place from November 2-17. Visit premier12.wbsc.org/2019, the official tournament website, for more information. The website is available in six languages: English, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.
Team USA-currently ranked No. 2 in the WBSC World Baseball Rankings-is in Group A of the tournament and will open the Premier12™ in Jalisco, Mexico. Joining Team USA in Group A is host-country Mexico (No. 6), Netherlands (No. 8) and the Dominican Republic (No. 12). All Group A games will be played at Estadio de Beisbol Charros de Jalisco.
The opening round schedule for Team USA is as follows:
November 2: USA vs. The Netherlands (12 p.m. CT)
November 3: USA vs. Mexico (7 p.m. CT)
November 4: USA vs. Dominican Republic (7 p.m. CT)
The top two teams from each group will advance to the six-team Super Round, which will be hosted by Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league and games will be played at ZOZO Marine Stadium (Chiba, Japan) and the Tokyo Dome (Tokyo, Japan). The championship game will also be played in the Tokyo Dome.
The top finisher from both the Asia/Oceania territory (excluding Japan) and the Americas territory will automatically qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, joining host-country Japan in the six-team Olympic tournament.
Team USA won a silver medal in the inaugural WBSC Premier12™ in 2015, finishing with a 7-3 overall record.
Group A(Estadio de Beisbol Charros de Jalisco, Mexico)
United States (No. 2)
Mexico (No. 6)
Netherlands (No. 8)
Dominican Republic (No. 12)
Group B(Taichung Intercontinental Stadium, Taiwan)
Japan (No. 1)
Chinese Taipei (No. 4)
Venezuela (No. 9)
Puerto Rico (No. 11)
Group C(Gocheok Sky Dome, Korea)
Korea (No. 3)
Cuba (No. 5)
Australia (No. 7)
Canada (No. 10)
