Sonora will host a World Baseball Championship for the second time

Despite the high levels of insecurity and drug trafficking in Sonora, the entity governed by Alfonso Durazo will host the upcoming U-15 Baseball World Championship, owned by the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC).

The competition will be held for 10 days and will take place from 26 August to 4 September, where 12 teams from the U-15 category (under 15) will compete. So far, the novenas that have sealed their passage are: Mexico, France, South Africa and the Czech Republic.

The remaining eight places will be decided through qualifying games. Five places are planned for countries in the Americas, two for Asia and one for Oceania.

During this period, more than 50 games will be broadcast and the new baseball academies of the “Héctor Espino” (home of the Naranjeros) and “Tomás Oroz” stadiums will be announced, in Hermosillo and Cajeme, respectively.

In that regard, Governor Alfonso Durazo recalled that this will be the second time that Sonora will host a Baseball World Cup, since from October to November 2021 the U23 Baseball World Championship was held in that entity, where Venezuela snatched the championship from Mexico.

“We already had the U-23, which was an extraordinary event that moved between Ciudad Obregon and Hermosillo,” said Durazo. He also stressed that, given the conditions in Sonora, this championship will help the development of the sport in the entity.

For her part, the director of the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (Conade), Ana Gabriela Guevara, stressed that this event will help promote tourism in the state and in Mexico. He added that it will also be used to recruit local talent, so it is expected that at least 50% of the selection will be made up of Sonorans.

Meanwhile, Erubiel Durazo, head of the Sonora State Sports Commission (Codeson), said that recruiters and viewers from the international arena will come to observe Mexican players and future promises. “We are going to have a lot of scouts, people who come from all over the world,” he said.

Along these lines, WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari thanked the President of Mexico and WBSC Global Ambassador, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who throughout his administration has shown his support for the sport, as well as the head of Conade, Ana Guevara, for making this event possible.

The tournament will begin with a “round robin” (round-robin system, in which each participating team competes against the others in turn) and then a Super Round will be played with the top six who qualify. Later, the contest will be resolved with the games where the bronze and gold medals will be played.

It should be recalled that last weekend the U15 National Baseball Championship was held, where Sonora managed to win against Sinaloa, with a score of 7 to 6. The game was played at Sonora Stadium.

Meanwhile, the U-18 championship will be held from 9-18 September in Florida, United States, while U-23 will be held from October 14 to 23.

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