FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2017

United States earns No. 1 spot in WBSC Women’s World Softball Rankings

 

OKLAHOMA CITY – There’s a new No. 1 ranked team in the world as the United States has landed atop the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Women’s World Softball Rankings USA Softball announced today.  The reigning World Champions in both the Women’s and Junior Women’s divisions, Team USA holds the position for the first time since the rankings were introduced in 2015.  Team USA takes the No. 1 spot from Japan, who have finished runner-up to the U.S. since the 2015 WBSC Junior Women’s World Championship.  

 

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have the United States ranked No. 1 in the WBSC Women’s World Softball Rankings,” said USA Softball Executive Director, Craig Cress.  “A big congratulations goes out to the athletes, coaches and staff of our Women’s and Junior Women’s National Team Programs who have put in countless hours to help keep the U.S. atop the podium.  The team will have the opportunity to defend the No. 1 spot this August in Chiba, where we will look to defend our Gold Medal finish from 2016.”

 

At the Junior Women’s World Championship level, the United States claimed the Gold at the 2015 and 2017 WBSC Junior Women’s World Championships where the team shattered several WBSC Junior Women’s World Championship records: Individual Most Home Runs (Bubba Nickles: 6), Individual Most Runs Batted In (Bubba Nickles: 30), Individual Highest Batting Average (Bubba Nickles: .690) and Team Home Runs (15).

 

For Women’s World Championship play, the Red, White and Blue reclaimed the Gold at the 2016 WBSC Women’s World Championship to earn the program’s 10th overall World Championship title.  After going a perfect 9-0, Amanda Chidester (Allen Park, Mich.) also entered into the record books herself in WBSC Women’s World Championship history in two categories: Most Runs Batted In (19) and Most Home Runs (7).

 

The WBSC Softball World Rankings track a country’s entire National Team performance in all WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period, including the U-19 Junior Women and Women Softball World Championships, multi-sport games, continental championships, and friendly series.

 

The web-based version and methodology of the WBSC Softball World Rankings can be found at www.wbsc.org/rankings.

About USA Softball

USA Softball is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is designated as the National Governing Body (NGB) of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, USA Softball sanctions competition in every state through a network of 70 local associations and has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 150,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2 million.  USA Softball is dedicated to providing people of all ages the opportunity to play the game they love at a variety of levels by offering recreational, league, tournament and competitive play for fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch.  USA Softball annually conducts thousands of tournaments throughout the country including over 100 National Championships.  The USA Softball umpire program is among the nation’s largest and are widely known as the best trained umpires in the game. 

 

About the World Baseball Softball Confederation 

Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland -- the Olympic Capital -- the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) is the world governing body for baseball and softball. WBSC has 202 National Federation and Associate Members in 143 countries and territories across Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania, which represent a united baseball/softball sports movement that encompasses over 65 million athletes and attracts approximately 150 million fans to stadiums worldwide annually. 

 

The WBSC governs all international competitions involving official National Teams. The WBSC oversees the Softball World Championships (Men, Women, U-19 Men, and U-19 Women), Premier12, World Baseball Classic, and Baseball World Cups (U-12, U-15, U-18, U-23 and Women's).

 

For more information, visit: www.wbsc.org.