OTTAWA-Baseball Canada is pleased to announce that Granby, QC will host a Women’s International Baseball Series July 15-20, 2013 at historic Napoléon-Fontaine Stadium.
Napoléon-Fontaine Stadium will also play host to the Senior Women Invitational July 10-14 and following that event Women’s National Team Manager André Lachance will select 30 players to form two teams to compete in the International Series.
Japan will be sending both the Orange Sakae and the Sakae Beavers – two of the top female high school teams in the country – to compete in the series. A similar series took place in Granby in 2009.
“The International Series will allow our coaching staff to evaluate potential players for the 2014 team that will compete in the IBAF Women’s World Cup,” said Lachance. “Japan is the class of women’s baseball and will provide our players with a stiff challenge.”
The four teams will compete in a round-robin style tournament with potential remains to add more teams to the event.
Japan is known to have some of the best female baseball programs in the world and their National Team recently captured the IBAF Women’s World Cup for the third time in a row last summer in Edmonton.
The Canadian team won bronze in Edmonton and now had their sights set on the 2014 World Cup and also the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto where women’s baseball will be featured in the sport program for the first time.
Although Lachance and his staff are looking towards the 2014 World Cup as the next major event on the National Teams calendar, the Pan Am Games are only two years away.
“Preparation for the World Cup and Pan Am Games starts in Granby,” added Lachance. “The World Cup is right around the corner and before you know it the Pan Am Games will be upon us.
“Competition for roster spots on our team will begin this summer which means that the International Series should feature some great games as the calibre of play will be extremely high.”
Stay tuned to Baseball.ca for roster and schedule information.
