S. Korea stays put at No. 3 in world baseball rankings

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) — South Korea stayed put at No. 3 in the latest world baseball rankings unveiled Friday.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) released the newly updated rankings based on countries’ national team records, from the under-12 level to professional, at WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period from 2015 to 2018.

This image provided by the World Baseball Softball Confederation on Sept. 28, 2018, shows the latest world rankings, based on countries’ performances over a four-year period from 2015 to 2018. (Yonhap)

And South Korea remained in third place with 4,534 points behind the United States and Japan.

South Korea won gold medals at the Asian Games and the U-18 Asia Championship, both earlier in September, and finished in second place at the U-12 Asia Championship behind Chinese Taipei in August. On the other hand, South Korea didn’t qualify for the U-15 Baseball World Cup last month in Panama.

The U.S. stayed atop the rankings thanks to its victories at the U-15 World Cup and the U-12 Pan-Am Championship. The Americans have been No. 1 since February.

Japan narrowed its gap with the United States from 416 to 270 points, after earning the silver medal at the Asian Games and the bronze at the U-12 Asia Championship.

Cuba, Chinese Taipei, Mexico, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Puerto Rico rounded out the top 10. Venezuela and the Dominican Republic were 11th and 12th, respectively.

The top 12 countries at the end of this year will qualify for the 2019 Premier 12, which will be the first qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In this file photo from Sept. 1, 2018, South Korean national baseball players celebrate their gold medal at the 18th Asian Games at GBK Baseball Field in Jakarta. (Yonhap)