Netherlands, Spain first to qualify for int'l youth baseball tourney in S. Korea
SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) -- The Netherlands and Spain have become the first nations to qualify for the world's premier youth baseball tournament taking place in South Korea next year.
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced Tuesday that the two countries will represent Europe at the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Gijang County within Busan, some 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
On Sunday, the Netherlands defeated Spain 6-3 in the final of the U-18 European Baseball Championship in Grosseto, Italy, where the top two nations earned a place at the U-18 Baseball World Cup.
By continent, Asia will have three representatives, with South Korea having earned an automatic berth as the host. The Americas will have four, and Africa and Oceania will have one each. There will also be a wild card entry.
The Netherlands finished in eighth place at the most recent U-18 World Cup last year in Thunder Bay, Canada, while Spain will be competing for the first time since 2006.
South Korea hosted this tournament in 2012. It has won five titles, third most behind Cuba (11) and the United States (nine).
The U.S. has won the past four titles, with the 2017 gold medal coming at the expense of South Korea with an 8-0 win in the final.
The U-18 tournament has produced some of the biggest names in baseball today, including U.S. stars Clayton Kershaw and Buster Posey, Cuba's Yasiel Puig and Aroldis Chapman, Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani of Japan, and South Korea's Choo Shin-soo, the tournament MVP in 2000 when the country beat the U.S. for gold.
jeeho@yna.co.kr
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