The softball competition at the 2022 World Games took place from July 9–13, 2022,^[1] in Birmingham in United States, at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Originally scheduled to take place in July 2021, the Games were rescheduled for July 2022 as a result of the 2020 Summer Olympics postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] Softball returned to the official programme of the World Games after nine years of absence.

This tournament also served as the world championship for softball.^[3]

Format

A total of eight teams are divided into two groups of four teams each. In each group, teams played against each other once in a single round-robin format, for a total of three matches per team. The top two of each of the two groups advanced to the knockout stage.

Qualification

Eight teams qualified, including United States, which, as host nation, qualifies automatically. Qualification places were primarily based on national softball ranking. The last berth was awarded at the European Softball Championship, which was scheduled to take place in 2020 but have been moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[4]

Qualified teams

Team	Date of qualification	Method of qualification
United States	22 April 2020	Host
Japan	22 April 2020	Finished 2nd in WBSC ranking
Canada	22 April 2020	Finished 3rd in WBSC ranking
Mexico	22 April 2020	Finished 5th in WBSC ranking
Chinese Taipei	22 April 2020	Finished 6th in WBSC ranking
China[!]	22 April 2020	Finished 7th in WBSC ranking
Australia	22 April 2020	Finished 8th in WBSC ranking
Italy	3 July 2021	Finished 1st at the 2021 Women's Softball European Championship
Puerto Rico[!]	24 March 2022	Wildcard

Notes

1. ^
   China originally qualified by virtue of their WBSC ranking. However, China withdrew due to COVID-19 travel restrictions by the Chinese government on March 24, 2022. WBSC replaced China with Puerto Rico on March 24, 2022.

Competition schedule

The match schedule of the softball tournament was unveiled on 24 February 2022.^[5]

Squads

Group stage

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	RF	RA	RD	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	United States (H)	3	3	0	23	2	+21	1.000	—	Advance to knockout stage
2	Chinese Taipei	3	2	1	13	12	+1	.667	1
3	Canada	3	1	2	16	23	−7	.333	2	Advance to classification stage
4	Italy	3	0	3	5	20	−15	.000	3

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: WBSC
(H) Hosts

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	RF	RA	RD	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Japan	3	3	0	22	1	+21	1.000	—	Advance to knockout stage
2	Australia	3	2	1	12	10	+2	.667	1
3	Puerto Rico	3	1	2	3	10	−7	.333	2	Advance to classification stage
4	Mexico	3	0	3	1	17	−16	.000	3

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: WBSC

Classification stage

Bracket

	5th–8th Classification				Fifth place play-off
	July 12 – Birmingham
	Canada (6)	8
					July 13 – Birmingham
	Mexico	1
					Canada	0
	July 12 – Birmingham
					Puerto Rico	1
	Puerto Rico (5)	7
	Italy	0
					Seventh place play-off
					July 13 – Birmingham
					Mexico	1
					Italy	4

Seventh place play-off

July 13 11:00 (CDT)
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium 31 °C (88 °F)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Mexico	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6	0
Italy	1	0	0	0	0	3	X	4	4	2
WP: Alexia Lacatena   LP: Sierra Hyland Boxscore

Fifth place play-off

July 13 02:00 (CDT)
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium 32 °C (90 °F)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Puerto Rico	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	0
Canada	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1
WP: Aleshia Ocasio   LP: Jorde Madison Chartrand Boxscore

Knockout stage

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Gold medal match
	July 12 – Birmingham
	Chinese Taipei	0
					July 13 – Birmingham
	Japan (6)	7
					Japan	2
	July 12 – Birmingham
					United States	3
	Australia	0
	United States	5
					Bronze medal match
					July 13 – Birmingham
					Chinese Taipei	6
					Australia	0

Semi-finals

July 12 05:00 (CDT)
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium 33 °C (91 °F)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Chinese Taipei	0	0	0	0	0	0	X	0	3	3
Japan (6)	0	2	0	0	4	1	X	7	9	0
WP: Miu Goto   LP: Chiu An-Ju   Sv: Sakura Miwa Home runs: TPE: None JPN: Yamato Fujita Boxscore

July 12 08:00 (CDT)
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium 29 °C (84 °F)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Australia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
United States	1	0	0	4	0	0	X	5	5	0
WP: Ally Carda   LP: Ellen Roberts   Sv: Montana Fouts Boxscore

Bronze medal match

July 13 05:00 (CDT)
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium 31 °C (88 °F)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Australia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Chinese Taipei	1	2	0	1	2	0	X	6	11	0
WP: Ke Hsia-Ai   LP: Ellen Roberts Boxscore

Gold medal match

July 13 09:00 (CDT)
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium 24 °C (75 °F)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Japan	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	8	0
United States	0	3	0	0	0	0	X	3	5	1
WP: Monica Abbott   LP: Sakura Miwa   Sv: Ally Carda Boxscore

Medalists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Women's tournament	United States	Japan	Chinese Taipei

See also

• Softball at the World Games

References

External links

• The World Games 2022
• World Baseball Softball Confederation