The 2024 WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup begins on Friday, August 16. 12 teams will compete for the world title in Barranquilla and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. The teams had their official training day on Thursday and are now ready to start the tournament on Friday with six exciting games. On the eve of the tournament, the managers reflected on their teams and their expectations.

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Coach in Colombia Neder Horta mentioned that playing on home soil is a responsibility for his team, but he believes they are up to the challenge. “Playing at home means making a commitment to our country. We have to do our best in every game to represent Colombia well and bring joy and satisfaction to our fans, who will support us throughout the event, I’m sure,” he said. “We have a solid team. We need a little more power, but we have a team capable of making the routine plays and hitting with foundation. That’s what we want: a solid team every time we step on the field.”

Some of the world’s leading baseball teams will be in Colombia on August 25 to lift the World Cup at the Edgar Rentería Stadium in Barranquilla, and they have made that clear from the start.

Coach of the Dominican Republic Jose Cano made a statement before the official training. “Our only goal is to win. Since our first training in Santo Domingo, our goal has been to win, win and win again. And to keep winning in Colombia,” he said. “We have a good mix of power and speed. That is our greatest strength. And mentally we are ready to win this World Cup.”

Emmanuel Rangel, Mexico’s coach also believes they have a good chance of winning. He says the team has prepared well and his players are in top form. “Pitching will make us strong in this tournament. We have a very good pitching team and our defense and hitting have improved. So we are improving as a team,” he said. “Our goal is to win the gold medal and be crowned champions. That’s what we’re looking for. We believe we can take home the gold medal because the team and the players are ready to fight for the title.”

Japan has not won a world title since 1990, so this title is hard for them to achieve. Their coach this year, Hirokazu Ibatawho will also lead the national team at this year’s WBSC Premier12 presented by RAXUS, is looking forward and not thinking about the past. “Of course, results are results. But we are focused on the present and future of these players. If they play well, we can win everything for sure,” he said. “What happened in the past has no effect on this team. This is a new team and they will write their own history.”

When asked about his team’s strengths, Ibata said: “As a typical Japanese team, we have a strong defense with a really good pitching team. Offensively, we can of course do damage, but our biggest strength is our defense. We are very confident in our team as a whole.”

Puerto Rico qualified for the World Championship as winners of the Americas Qualifier in March. Coach Jose San Miguel said they were happy and proud to be continental champions and winning the title had raised their expectations for the World Championship. “We want to win, nobody comes to this tournament just to participate. But we will go step by step. First we have five important games to get to the super round and then we will try to fight for a medal,” he said. “This is a united team, we are a family and that has been one of the keys for this team, the chemistry, the cohesion. To have such a talented group of guys, most of whom are stars on their teams in Puerto Rico, and to manage to put this team together is incredible.”

Pitching and defense will be key for Puerto Rico. “We’ll score some runs, but if our pitchers attack the batters and our defense catches the ball, we’ll have plenty of chances to win,” San Miguel added. “If we play to our potential, this will be one of the best defensive teams in the tournament.”

Other teams have more moderate ambitions and say that their strategy is to grow day by day and try to move as high up the table as possible.

manager Giuseppe Mazzanti said Italy was ready for the tournament after a good preparation. “We prepared for this World Cup by playing in an international tournament in Europe against the Netherlands and Germany. Then we held a training camp in Novara, Italy, to prepare for the tournament and announce the team,” he said. “We have to go day by day. Our goal is to play good baseball, play our own game, and then we’ll see what happens in the tournament.”

Yurendell De CasterCoach of the Netherlands, has a good mix of players and a clear goal. “We have a mix of players from different places. Six from the Netherlands, ten from Curacao and four from Aruba. But we were not able to train together as a team before our trip to Colombia. However, we expect to be in the top six in the final table at the end of the tournament.”

Coach South Africa Clive Pretorius is thinking not only about this tournament but also about the development of baseball in his country and is conducting a six-month selection process to make the final selection. “Our goal is to make our players stronger and stronger. Baseball is not the national sport in our country, not even a top 10 sport, so if we can improve from tournament to tournament, it will help us a lot in developing our players,” he said. “We are probably better prepared than in previous years because we have completed a full 12-week training with most of this team, but we have not played a single game as a team. So tomorrow will be a big test of what we will do in this tournament.”

On Friday, the twelve teams will take to the field in Barranquilla and Cartagena to write their history in the tournament.