The San Francisco Firebells entered the first championship in the Women’s Professional Baseball League history as strong favorites. They went 10-5 -- good for the best record in the regular season -- and they swept the Boston Hunters in the semifinals. They had the best offense and the league’s best player: Two-way superstar and No. 1 overall Draft Pick Kelsie Whitmore.
But everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Firebells in the first two games of the best-of-five championship against the Los Angeles Queens. They blew a 6-2 lead in Game 1 and lost key reliever Rosi Del Castillo with an injury after she faced just two batters. They committed six errors and gave up 10 runs in the fourth inning – a WPBL record -- in Game 2. And Whitmore, the team’s captain and who tied for the league-lead in home runs and was second in OPS during the regular season -- had gone 0-for-8.
Before Saturday’s game, Whitmore had one request for her teammates: “Remember your why.”
“My why is the love of the game,” shortstop Joely Leguizamon said after going 2-for-4 with a home run to earn Player of the Game honors in the Firebells’ 10-5 victory against the Queens. “I’ve never wanted to do anything else except play baseball. I’m living my dream right now and I’m pushing forward -- because I love baseball.”
Leguizamon wasn’t the only Firebells player to show off her love for the game. The rest of her teammates made sure to jump out to an early lead on Saturday.
Amanda Gianelloni, who hit a grand slam in Game 1, led off the game with a double. Whitmore then snapped her oh-fer with an RBI single, advancing to second on the throw. Skylar Kaplan added another RBI single. Three batters later -– and after another pitch clanged off Alexia Jorge (who is having a Craig Biggio-esque run of drawing hit-by-pitches) –- Samantha Gutierrez drove in another run.
Up 3-0 after the first, the Firebells added four more in the second, with RBIs from power-hitting first baseman Andreanne Leblanc and two-way star Jill Albayati and the first career home run from shortstop Luguizamon, who will now be going home $200 richer.
She had spotted her father in the crowd and remembered a bet he had offered her years ago:
“He said, if I hit it over the fence, I get $200,” Leguizamon joked. “So I’ll be looking for him. It was his first game back since the opening weekend. To be able to do it in front of my Mom and Dad and see them as I'm going around the bases was a very wholesome moment.”
That was all starting pitcher Nicki Eckert would need. Showing off the Firebells’ impressive pitching depth, Eckert -- a member of New York City’s Department of Education in her day job, making her only available for weekend games during the regular season –--helped ensure that there would be a game to play on Sunday.
Eckert pitched four sharp frames, striking out two and giving up just two runs on Game 1 hero Jamie Mackay’s two-run shot.
“I think Nicki was really good tonight,” Firebells manager Matt Williams said. “She gave us all the innings that she could. I’m pretty proud of her and the offense.” It’s a good first step. We were against the wall and we got one.”
While San Francisco kept tacking on runs -- two more in the fourth and another in the sixth -- the Queens refused to go down quietly. They pushed three runs across against reliever Liz Gilder in the fifth inning and loaded the bases later in the inning and again in the sixth -- even bringing up the tying run at one point -- with Gilder always managing to wriggle out of danger.
“We were pretty thin today with our pitching staff,” Williams said. “We had two lefties out there today, and they were impressive for us. So, it gives us a little bit more tomorrow.”
The Firebells will look to tie the series at 2 games apiece on Sunday (Williams indicated that Whitmore might be in line for her second start of the series), while the Queens will try to secure the championship.
First pitch will be at 3 p.m. ET and can be streamed on ESPN+ in the United States and on the WPBL’s YouTube page internationally.
“Motto's always been, one pitch at a time, one inning at a time,” Leguizamon said. “That's what we're gonna ride with until the end.”