OTTAWA – The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has released their women’s and men’s baseball world rankings recently and it is good news for both the women’s and men’s National teams.

On the women’s side, Canada maintains their Top 3 ranking, coming in third behind No. 1 Japan and No. 2 Chinese Taipei.

With no international events taking place in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the two most recent finishes for the Women’s National Team program include bronze medals won at the 2019 COPABE Women’s Pan Am Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico and at the 2018 WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup in Viera, Florida.

The 2020 version of the Women’s Baseball World Cup was postponed due to the pandemic and details around future dates and location for the event are still to be determined.

On the men’s side, Canada has jumped five spots to No. 8 after being at No. 13 since the previous rankings were released in March 2020.

The rankings, according to a statement issued by the WBSC, considers:

“The WBSC Baseball World Rankings measure National Team performance — from U-12 to Professional — in official WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period. The newly published rankings reflect the distribution of ranking points from 2018-current (2021). No ranking points were awarded in 2020 as a result of the suspension of international games due to COVID-19.”

Canada is coming off a fourth place finish at the WBSC Baseball Americas Olympic Qualifier earlier this month in Florida while the Junior National Team program will send a team to compete at the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup this September in Bradenton and Sarasota, Florida.

Japan has remained in the No. 1 position, a spot they have held since September 2018, while Chinese Taipei and Korea hold down the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively.

The complete world rankings for both men and women can be viewed here.