The city of northwestern Ontario was host to the most exciting baseball talent in North America two weeks ago. And none of the players were men.
Instead of this year’s Women’s Baseball World Cup Qualifier in Venezuela, the Canada and U.S. Women’s National Teams hosted a five-game Friendship Series in Thunder Bay, Ontario from July 28 to August 1. . Canada went 3-2 for her.
“This is something special that these women can do,” says US manager Veronica Alvarez. “Anyone who comes around these women becomes infected with passion and almost falls in love.”
In the last few years, women’s attention in baseball has begun to rise. Alyssa Nakken announced that in 2020 she would become the first full-time female coach in MLB history. marlins In November of that year, Rachel Barcovec became the first woman to become a full-time manager of an affiliated Major League team earlier this year. In April, Kelsey Whitmore, who started all five of her games for the U.S. national team at Thunder Bay, signed with Staten with the Ferryhawks, making Atlantic the first woman to play in her league.
Whitmore, who became the first woman to play in the Atlantic League in April, will be in her seventh year playing for the U.S. Women’s National Baseball Team.
Provided by Lizzie Hattrich/Team USA
These women represent the first in a long list and represent an important incremental progression for one of the oldest boys’ clubs in the sport. Women’s baseball is a legitimately competitive sport with a future of its own.The whole weekend was proof that women can and actually play baseball, not just softball. very Skillful.
Team USA and Team Canada are two of the most talented women’s baseball teams in the world and are evenly matched in international rankings. The World Baseball Softball Confederation establishes national team rankings based on points accumulated by winning in international competitions. Six-time world champions Japan are eliminated in first place, but are less than 100 points behind Chinese Taipei in second, Canada in third and USA in fourth. Canada earned a bronze medal in her final game of the 2018 Women’s Baseball World Cup, knocking the United States off the podium and placing her in fourth place. However, the following year, in the World Cup qualifiers in Mexico, the United States beat Canada her 21-4 in the final international game played by either team.
This series was another chance to settle the score, and it was also the first time in three years for each country to experience something other than intra-team competition.
“It was called a friendly series, and I think we knew from Game 1 that nothing was friendly,” says Canadian manager Ashley Stevenson. “Both teams have so much respect for each other that many players are even friends.
Rivalry runs deep, even among the coaching staff. Both Stevenson and Alvarez were longtime members of their respective national teams before moving on to coaching roles. They competed against each other as athletes at his 2015 Pan American Games. This was the first, and still only time, for women’s baseball to appear in multisport international competition. (The USA beat Canada 11-2 to her in the gold medal game.)
Alvarez has been the United States manager since 2019. Stevenson, meanwhile, is a former MLB pitcher who spent four years as Canada’s captain, but Aaron, who left the team earlier this year for personal reasons. is in its first year. cause.
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for both teams, with the final rosters announced four days before the start of the series. The US selection process began with an open trial in Minnesota on July 18th. From there, 40 players were selected for his camp roster for national team training. They played intra-team games at the Neiman Sports Complex and Target Field. twinsCompete for the final 20 slots at the home stadium.
With women from all over the country, these weeks are one of the few times when everyone can train together as a group. Most people balance baseball with a full-time commitment to a career or school.
The final US roster for the Friendship Series was a mix of 12 veterans and 8 all-new faces. Malaika Underwood and Anna Kimbrel made the team in their 11th and 10th respectively, her four other players having at least her six years of experience.
One of those veterans is Whitmore, who joined Team USA for the seventh time this July. The 24-year-old Whitmore is a two-way back and forth between the mound and the outfield for both the national team and the Ferryhawks of the independent Atlantic League (often considered on par with many double or triple-A teams). Player. .
“I couldn’t think of anyone better suited to stand in that position, representing women around the world,” said Meggie Maidlinger, a right-handed pitcher, infielder, and six-time US National Team player. say. “She is one of the most elite players in the world, she has an incredible work ethic and she gives her all. It’s so cool to see you there.”
At first, Whitmore wasn’t sure if he would be able to travel to Canada for the Friendship series because he has a professional contract. Luckily, the Ferryhawks are on board, and GM Gary Perrone, manager Edgardo Alfonso, and pitching coach Nelson Figueroa are once again on the varsity team, as she’s been doing since her sophomore year of high school. I have given permission to play at
“It’s one of the best feelings to be here with so many other women playing this game,” says Whitmore. “I listen to them. It feels great to know you are.”
Whitmore is Shohei Ohtani of the Atlantic League and the United States Women’s Baseball National Team.
Provided by Lizzie Hattrich/Team USA
Although she usually appears as relief for the Ferryhawks, Whitmore got her first job for the United States in the first game of the Friendship series. In Team USA’s 16–2 opening win, Whitmore went 4 2/3 innings, allowing zero runs on five hits. She also provided her support for her own run.
On the Canadian side, the roster was finalized after the Women’s Invitational Championship at the end of July. Nine teams representing seven states traveled to Stonewall, Manitoba to play for the national title, which was selected at the conclusion of the tournament.
The season has been an emotional one for the Canadian team and will be their first appearance since captain Amanda Asay died in January in a skiing accident at the age of 33. In her honor, Canadian players wore a patch with her nickname “Ace” on their sleeves, and all wore her number 19 on the back of their jerseys during her practice. Before the series opener, Asay’s parents joined the team on the field for a moment of silence.
“She was like the North Star we were following,” Stevenson says.
Canada took a 1–0 lead in the second game before the United States rallied on eight hits and took advantage of four Canadian errors to score seven unanswered runs to win the game. Down 0–2 in the series, Canada rebounded the next day to beat the United States 10–8. Julia Konigshofer, one of her eight rookies to play in Canada, took the win.
Team USA’s young talent also showed up on the mound over the weekend. On Day 4, the Americans won the series, shutting out Canada 7–0. His 18-year-old Jillian Albayati, a right-handed pitcher and infielder from Anaheim, pitched five innings to record his three strikeouts.
“I love watching young players develop into their roles and I love seeing how far they’ve come,” says Meidlinger. “It’s been fun to watch the growth and it’s a very different change [from] When I was 18, [my] first time [year] in a team. “
The final game of the series was a rematch of the season opener pitching duel between Whitmore and Canada’s Ali Schroeder. At just 20 years old, British right-hander Schroeder from Fruitvale, Columbia, is already a veteran of the team. He has played for the Canadian national team since he was 16.
Schroeder had a more limited role than usual in this year’s series, with trainers in Canada disallowing her bat. However, in the final game, Schroeder went six full innings, striking out five and allowing four runs in Canada’s 8–4 victory.
When not playing for Team Canada, Schroeder works as a forest firefighter and is a pitcher for the boys’ baseball team as a student at Vancouver Island University.
Courtesy of Adam Morissette/Team Canada
Last year, Schroeder became the first woman to pitch in the Canadian College Baseball Conference after joining the Vancouver Island University men’s baseball team. Away from Diamond, she’s battling forest fires in her home state in her home state and must find a way to fit her workout into her work schedule.
“I work a 14-day shift and have two days off. “Training is literally like going to find a fence, or a brick wall in a fire camp, throwing a baseball at it and doing what you can.”
Both teams left Thunder Bay with some positive results. The U.S. won the series, beating Canada her 42-21 in five games, but Canada’s final win continues to put the U.S. in contention and a rivalry that hasn’t broken. It has been proven. Both countries have their sights set on the next Women’s Baseball World Cup scheduled for 2024. What awaits them is a rematch and a match against longtime champions Japan.
Besides rankings and the World Cup, Team USA and Team Canada have other goals. It is to bring their sport to the attention of many people on the international stage. Women’s baseball is played in her 20 countries, but hasn’t had a chance to play in a multisport international event since the 2015 Pan American Games. The ultimate dream is to include women’s baseball in the Olympics. That momentous stage would show the whole world that there is a thriving community of women present in what has long been viewed as a man’s game.
Athletes like Whitmore and Schroder, and several members of Team USA who play NCAA men’s baseball, prove that women can play the game alongside men. Being the only one is annoying. Women in men’s leagues are often perceived first as a gender and then as baseball players. These national programs offer women their own teams. If you stand out in a crowd, it’s because of your talent, not your ponytail under your cap.
“It’s great to be in a community full of women, women ballplayers,” says Whitmore. “It definitely makes the game worth playing.”
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