(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Netherlands remains in 10th place on World Ranking
Nederlands
 LAUSANNE (Switzerland) -
The Netherlands remained listed in tenth place of the newest World Ranking Baseball List, which was announced by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) on Thursday (August 25).
The top-2 on the list also remained unchanged.
Japan is in first place, 62 points ahead of the USA.
Korea moved up from fourth to third place, while Chinese Taipei dropped from third to fourth.
Cuba remained in fifth place, followed by Canada, which climed from eighth to sixth place.
Canada followed by Venezuela and Mexico, which both dropped one spot.
Italy remained the best qualified European country in ninth place, 27 points ahead of the Netherlands.
Completing the top-12 are Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
With that, the top 12 remained unchanged opposed to the latest ranking published by the WBSC.
The top-12 is qualified to participate in the Premier12, which was held for the first time last year.
In the places 13 through 24, three European countries moved up.
The Czech Republic moved from 16th to 14th place, while Spain remained at 21st place.
Russia climbed three spots from 25th to 22nd place, while France moved from 26th to 24th place.
More European countries climbed up the ladder in the World Rankings.
Sweden moved up one spot to 28th place, while Great Britain gained three places, moving from 33rd to 30th place.
Belgium, Austria, Greece and Croatia all also climbed three spots and are now respectively in 31st, 33rd, 34th and 35th place.
Slovakia moved from 44th to 39th place, while Poland climbed eleven places from 52nd to 41st place.
Israel moved from 43rd to 42nd place and Slovenia moved six places up to 43rd place.
Belarus (plus 2), Romania (plus 9) and Ireland (plus 6) also moved up and are now in 44th, 45th and 47th place.
The list continues with more successful moves by European countries.
Switzerland remained in 50th place and is followed by Serbia.
This country was not ranked before, but entered the list in 51st place (of the 71 countries ranked).
Finland moved up three spots to 52nd place.
Estonia also moved up big, climbing eleven spots to 55th place.
Hungary (plus 3) and Norway (plus 5) also are in a higher spot and are currently in 58th and 59th place.
Georgia, which also was not ranked earlier, entered the list in 66th place.
Of the 71 countries listed on the World Ranking, 31 are situated in Europe.
19 countries located on the American continent (North, Central and South combined).
18 countries are in Asia, two in Oceania and one in Africa.
Amongst the countries from the American continent is Curaçao, which moved from 66th to 65th place.
Five European countries dropped somewhat in the ranking.
Germany went from 19th to 20th place, Lithuania dropped three places and is now in 38th position.
Ukraine dropped ninth places to the 40th position.
Bulgaria is in 46th place, dropping one spot.
Latvia also dropped a little, from 59th to 61st place.
In compiling the Official WBSC Baseball World Rankings, the entire National Team programme from Under-12 to Professional is weighed in international competition.
For each participation and ranking in an international event, points are given to a respective country, which results in the Ranking.
Earlier this month, Japan earned more points for finishing in second place at the Under-15 World Cup in Iwaki (Japan).
With that, Japan stayed ahead of the USA, which finished in third place on this event.
The next update of the World Ranking comes in November after completion of the Under-23 World Cup in Mexico.
(August 25)
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