(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
   South Africa and Botswana complete field of participants Men's Softball World Championship
Nederlands
 ATTERIDGEVILLE, Tshwane, Gauteng (South Africa) -
South Africa and Botswana have qualified for the World Championship Men Softball, which will be held in June of this year in the Czech Republic.
It will be the first time that the global event is organized in Europe.
On Saturday (January 12), South Africa and Botswana reached the Final of the African Softball Championship, which also served as Qualifying Tournament for the World Championship.
By reaching the Final, the two countries secured a spot for the event in the Czech Republic.
Besides South Africa and Botswana, Lesotho also participated in the event.
This was played at Mbolekwa Sports Complex in Atteridgeville, which is a township located west of Pretoria, which is the central part of the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality in the northern Gauteng Province.
Pretoria is one of three capitals of South Africa.
Cape Town, as seat of the Parliament, is the legislative capital.
Pretoria, as the seat of the President and Cabinet, is the administrative capital and Bloemfontein, as the seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal, is the judicial capital.
On Thursday, the event in Atteridgeville began with two shutouts for Lesotho.
First, Botswana shutout Lesotho 0-9, then South Africa later won with a 10-0 score.
On Friday, Botswana handed South Africa an 8-2 loss in their first meeting of the event.
Hereafter, the second round followed.
That began with another 10-0 win for South Africa against Lesotho, which then lost 26-1 to Botswana.
The double round-robin closed on Saturday with a 5-4 win of Botswana vs. South Africa.
Hereafter, in the Final, South Africa captured the title by winning 4-2 against Botswana.
With the addition of South Africa and Botswana, the field of participants is now complete for the WBSC Men's Softball World Championship, which will be held June 13-23 in Prague and Havlíčkův Brod.
Sixteen countries will participate in the event.
Besides South Africa and Botswana, the other countries that qualified are Argentina, Canada, Cuba (wild card) México, USA, Venezuela (all Americas), Japan, Philippines, Singapore (all Asia), Czech Republic, Denmark, Netherlands (all Europe), Australia and New Zealand (both Oceania).
New Zealand is ranked first on the world ranking list of the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
South Africa and Botswana also faced each other in Atteridgeville for the African title in Junior Women's Softball.
They were the lone participants in the event and played five games against each other in three days.
South Africa won all five to win the African title.
On Thursday, South Africa recorded two shutouts, 7-0 and 11-0.
On Friday, the team twice with a 10-3 score.
On Saturday, South Africa closed with a 7-0 win.
Before the event, both countries already had qualified for participation in the WBSC Junior Women's Softball World Cup, which will be held August 11-17 in Irvine, California (USA).
In Irvine, there also will be sixteen participating countries, being Botswana, South Africa (both Africa), Brazil, Canada, México, Puerto Rico, USA (all Americas), China, Chinese Taipei, Japan (all Asia), Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands (wild card) (all Europe), Australia and New Zealand (both Oceania).
(January 12)
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