World No. 26 South Africa defeated No. 77 Zimbabwe in the final, 21-1, to win the U-23 African Championship on home soil at the Boksburg Cardinals facility in Gauteng and claim Africa’s spot in the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2026.
South Africa dominated the three-team and two-way round-robin, completing their campaign undefeated. Zimbabwe won their two games against Benin, one of the most recent baseball programmes to develop on the continent.
“It is encouraging to see South Africa working alongside our international counterparts to further the development of baseball across Africa,” commented South Africa Baseball Union President Marc Moreay. “The WBSC Africa Championships have once again demonstrated the value of cooperation in advancing the sport on the continent.”
U-23 African Championship Results
DAY 1
Zimbabwe-Benin 12-4
South Africa-Benin 24-0 (5 innings)
DAY 2
South Africa-Zimbabwe 15-1
South Africa-Benin 23-1
DAY 3
Zimbabwe-Benin 12-5
South Africa-Zimbabwe 19-4
WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2026
Nicaragua will host the VI WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup from November 6 to 15, 2026. The WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup is an evolution of the U-21 Baseball World Cup, hosted by the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) in 2014 in Taichung.
The Local Organising Committee has proposed three venues – Soberanía National Stadium in Managua, the brand-new Roberto Clemente Stadium in Masaya, and Rigoberto López Pérez Stadium in León – to host the tournament. The venues will be confirmed at a later stage.
Ten other teams have already qualified.
No. 16 Nicaragua have earned an automatic berth as the host nation.
No. 17 Great Britain and No. 15 Czechia secured Europe’s two tickets by finishing first and second, respectively, at the European Championship held in Czechia this past August.
No. 1 Japan, No. 2 Chinese Taipei and No. 4 Korea qualified through the XXXI BFA Asian Championship in September.
In October, No. 8 Panama, No. 7 Puerto Rico and No. 9 Cuba earned three of the four WBSC Americas spots in the North, Central America and Caribbean Qualifier, and World No. 5 Venezuela won the WBSC Americas Qualifier for the South America region held in Lima, Peru.
The winner of the WBSC Oceania Qualifier, a best-of-five series between Australia and Guam scheduled from November 6 to 9 at the Blacktown International Sportspark near Sydney, will complete the set of 12 participants.
