(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Schedule World Championship Softball announced
Nederlands
  LAUSANNE (Switzerland) / SURREY, British Columbia (Canada) -
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) on Tuesday (May 24) announced the official schedule for this years 15th edition Women's Softball World Championship, which will be held July 15-24 in Surrey (Canada).
In total, a record of 124 games will be played during the event in which 31 countries are participating.
In the Preliminary Opening Round, there will be eight pools.
Seven of them will exist of four teams, in one pool, three countries will play.
The ranking of the Preliminary Round will set the Second Round, which also will have eight pools.
The top-two teams of these eight pools will then advance to the Championship Play-Offs.
The teams finishing in third and fourth place will continue playing in the Placement Play-Offs.
30 participating countries will get into action on the first day of competition on July 15.
The first game is scheduled to start at 8:30 AM local time.
The lone team that will not play on Opening Day is defending champion Japan.
Eleven countries will participate in a World Championship for the first time, being Brazil, Ecuador, India, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Pakistan, Peru, Serbia, Switzerland and Uganda.
Two years ago, Japan captured the Championship-title when the event was held in Haarlem (Netherlands).
Japan also won the Gold Medal two years earlier in 2012, when the World Championship took place in Whitehorse (Canada).
The Netherlands will open the tournament playing in Pool F.
The Orange squad captured the European Championship-title three consecutive times in 2009, 2011 and 2013 when it stayed unbeaten.
In 2015, the Dutch team had to settle for Silver after losing the Final to Italy.
The Netherlands is the highest ranking European team of the World Ranking-list of the WBSC and is ranked seventh.
On July 15, the Netherlands opens the tournament against Pakistan, starting at 3:30 PM local time.
The next day, the Orange Team meets Czech Republic (10 AM), followed by the match-up against Philippines on July 17 (also starting at 10 AM).
The pool-alignments are as follows:
| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D | Pool E | Pool F | Pool G | Pool H |
| Japan | USA | Australia | Canada | Chinese Taipei | Netherlands | China | New Zealand |
| Venezuela | Brazil | Mexico | Great Britain | Puerto Rico | Czech Republic | Cuba | Italy |
| France | Austria | Switzerland | Ireland | India | Philippines | Guatemala | Kenya |
| | Israel | Serbia | Uganda | Ecuador | Pakistan | Greece | Peru |
(May 27)
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