ALBANY, New Zealand — The AWF Stadium at Rosedale Park will welcome the New Zealand Black Sox in an international softball challenge series against No. 2 Japan, No. 3 Argentina, No. 5 Australia, No. 8 Czech Republic, and No. 12 Samoa from 8-12 February.

BET SHEMESH, Israel — Ground has broken on the construction of a new multi-venue baseball centre 30 kilometres (19 mi.) west of Jerusalem in Bet Shemesh, as the bat-and-ball team sport — played in over 140 countries — continues to see global expansion.

ZAGREB (Croatia) – A European Union funded youth “Sports Xchange” programme between the Czech Republic and Croatia kicked off in Zagreb today.

2016: The Year that Baseball and Softball Were Voted Back to the Olympic Games.

Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) West defeated NPB East, 6-1, in the championship game of the Asia Winter Baseball League (AWB) at Taichung Intercontinental Stadium.

Heading into the final week of the Asia Winter Baseball (AWB) playoff race, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has advanced from 3rd-place a week ago in the standings to 2nd-place, using a 7-game winning streak to narrow the game between first-place NPB West to only 2.5 games.

The Għajnsielem Redcoats, a Malta sports club established in 2012, has secured a grant worth over €58,000 (US $62,300) through Erasmus+ Sports: Small Collaborative Partnerships, for a project aimed to improve gender equality in sport, especially softball. The project titled Inclusion and Gender Equality Through Softball (IGETS) will bring together three softball clubs coming from different parts of Europe – Għajnsielem Redcoats from Gozo, Malta, Olympia Haarlem from the Netherlands and Softball Klub Princ Zagreb from Croatia.

BELGRADE (Serbia) — The sport of softball, via the Serbia Softball Federation, was featured at the Serbia’s National Sport Fair — in Belgrade. The sports festival was organized by the Serbian Sport Association and sponsored by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and ran from 25-27 November. The three-day event featured 90 national sports and anti-doping organizations, along with sport equipment manufacturers.

The Asia Winter Baseball (AWB) pro international league inaugurated its 4th season last week at Taichung Intercontinental Stadium, as the selection of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) defeated the Chinese Taipei National Teams reserves, 7-4, in the opening game of the month-long championship.

View the updated scores and standings from the 2016 WBSC Co-Ed Slow Pitch World Cup.