Today, Baseball Australia has announced dates and format changes to the 2025 Australian Youth Championships.
Mark your calendars, as the the Australian Youth Championships are set to return to Blacktown, NSW in 2025 with a slightly altered tournament format and set-up.
All games will be played out of Blacktown International Sportspark but with some notable changes for this year’s format, as the Under 16’s and Under 18’s events will be split in 2025.
This National event is a huge opportunity for our players, as they compete against the other states for the title of National Champions and showcase their talent in front of over a dozen MLB scouts, over a vast baseball network.
You will be able to follow along the tournament through our broadcasts on Baseball+ and on digital platforms.
There will be two different start and finish dates for the tournament, and the finals format has altered. Baseball Australia ran us through the changes in todays announcement.
Here’s how it will work…
CHANGE 1: STAGGERED START
Based on the loaded schedule when running simultaneous Australian Youth Championship tournaments, the decision has been made to continue hosting both events together, however, the start date for each tournament will be two days apart.
The Under 16 tournament will run from January 7-13, and the Under 18 event from January 9-15.
CHANGE 2: REVAMPED FINALS
The tournament will still open with a round robin between the seven teams, but will conclude in a different way. There will be a double-elimination tournament between the top four team in the finals.
Here’s how the tournament format will work:
- Each team will play a full round robin of six games each, playing each opponent once;
- The top four teams will advance to the finals and be seeded #1 through #4 based on record;
- The finals will feature a double elimination bracket, similar to the Australian Women’s Championships;
- The #1 seed will play the #4 seed, and #2 will play #3;
- The winners of those games will advance to a qualifying final, the losers will play in an elimination game;
- The winner of the Prelim Final advances to the Gold Medal game, the loser will play the winner of the elimination final in the preliminary final.
Finals mock schedule:
Game 1 – #1 vs #4
Game 2 – #2 vs #3
Game 3 (Qualifying Final) – Winner G1 vs Winner G2
Game 4 (Elimination Final) – Loser G1 vs Loser G2
Game 5 (Preliminary Final) – Winner G4 vs Loser G3
Game 6 (Gold Medal) – Winner Game 3 vs Winner Game 5
In past years, the Top 4 teams would play a second stage of round robin games prior to seeding into medal games.
“This new format will reward higher seeds and place more importance on games in the second stage of each tournament,” says Baseball Australia tournament manager Michael Ibbotson.
Follow along at Baseball.com.au for any further updates on the upcoming Australian Youth Championships!