USA Softball announces 16-member 2023 World Cup roster

Editor's note: The following was first published on D1 Softball and includes the top 100 players. You can subscribe to the site here.

USA Softball announced on Friday the 2023 roster for the World Softball Confederation World Cup-Group A, which is scheduled to take place July 11-15 in Fingal-Dublin, Ireland.

The 16-member team consists of eight players from the Pac-12 Conference, five from the SEC and three from the Big 12. There are six current student-athletes and 10 former student-athletes from 10 universities represented. UCLA and Washington have three representatives, followed by LSU and Oklahoma with two apiece. Alabama, Mississippi State, Oregon, Oklahoma State, Tennessee and Utah each have one.

*Denotes current student-athlete

The World Cup competition will consist of a two-stage format with 18 teams competing across three groups in Stage 1 followed by Stage 2, which will be held in 2024 and will include the top two teams from each group playing against each other in the finals.

Competing in Group A, the U.S. will be joined by world-ranked No. 3 Chinese Taipei, No. 9 Australia, No. 16 Great Britain, No. 17 Ireland (host country) and No. 43 Botswana. An additional 12 countries will compete in Group B and Group C.

The 2023 US roster includes 15 veterans and one rookie. Thirteen return from the 2022 season, including six from the Canada Cup, five from The World Games, five from the Pan American Championship and five from the Japan All-Star Series. Also highlighting the squad are two members from the 2020 U.S. Olympic Softball Team that helped the Americans earn a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Washington’s Heather Tarr will return for her second stint as head coach. She is joined on the staff by assistant coaches Cindy Ball-Malone of UCF, Tony Baldwin of Georgia and Tim Walton of Florida.