Last week, we looked at the forthcoming World Baseball Classic, but before the tournament across three nations of Japan, Taiwan, and the USA starts in March 2023, there is still a little matter of final qualification.
The GB National Team has a good chance of progressing to the final stages, but let’s not underestimate the difficulty of making it through the Qualifiers Tournament.
Six teams from Europe and Africa will battle it out in September 2022, with the top two teams moving forward.
Germany host of the Qualification Tournament in Regensburg which starts at midday BST with a tie featuring South Africa against Spain.
Later that evening, we have the tasty matchup between GB and France.
If successful against the French, Team GB will face Germany on Saturday 17 September. And we all know what happened the last time a German national team faced one from these fair isles. #lionnesses
The double-elimination format of the qualifier will guarantee that even if the GB National Team fails to win their opening fixture against France, they will still get another shot at staying alive in the competition.
Regensburg: 16 – 21 September 2022
Fancy travelling over to support the team? Tickets start from EURO 21.00, and you can get an event pass to watch every game for just EURO 78.00.
As you would expect, German public transport is efficient for the event with the “Baseball Stadion” bus stop immediately in front of the arena. However, direct flights to Munich look prohibitive for my budget, so if you have any travel ideas, drop us a note. At the moment, we are investigating cheap Ryanair flights to Memmingen, about 100km from Munich.
#LetsGoGB
Gav is one of the growing team of writers at Bat Flips & Nerds. You can follow him on Twitter @GavTramps. Want to follow the World Baseball Classic for Bat Flips & Nerds? Click on the “Write for us” link above.
Featured image courtesy of MLB.com