In a league largely characterized by blowouts thus far, the Los Angeles Queens and San Francisco Firebells played one of the closest games in WPBL history on Friday night. The Queens struck the final blow with a two-out, two-RBI single by pitcher Jamie Mackay in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Just the fourth game this season to be decided by two or fewer runs, Friday night’s contest set a league record for lead changes. The Queens repeatedly tied things up only to see the Firebells move ahead, before LA finally turned the tables on San Francisco in its final turn at bat.
The Firebells plated three runs in the top of the second against LA starter Michelle Roche. The Queens returned serve in the bottom of the second, with third baseman Caitlin Eynon connecting for a two-run, opposite-field home run on a 74-mile-per-hour fastball from Firebells starter Kelsie Whitmore. It was the Perth, Australia, native’s first round-tripper of the season, and she told reporters after the game that she thought it was a flyout off the bat.
Left fielder Sarah Edwards and shortstop Samaria Benítez followed with singles, but the rally fell short when Whitmore got center fielder Mo’ne Davis to ground into a double play.
In the third, the teams traded solo homers. Catcher Alexia Jorge hit her second for the Firebells, and Queens captain Ashton Lansdell, making her first start in right field, connected for her first homer, a two-run blast off a Whitmore curveball. Lansdell’s shot was enough of a no-doubter for her to flip her bat and glance into the Queens dugout before rounding the bases.
After Roshe worked a scoreless fourth, the Queens tied things up for the first time in the bottom of the fourth by plating a leadoff walk to first baseman Ayuri Shimano, who made her WPBL debut in this game. Then the teeter started tottering.
The Firebells drove Roche from the game in the top of the fifth by loading the bases with two outs. The second of those outs came on another brilliant play by the Queens’ teenage second baseman, Amira Hondras. With a runner on first, she made a full-extension dive to her left, turned on her knees and cut down the lead runner at second. Mackay, who started the game at designated hitter, replaced Roche on the mound with the bases juiced, threw strikes, and stranded two of Roche’s runners, but not before Firebells right fielder Skylar Kaplan beat out a slow roller to the left side for an RBI single that retied the game.
The Queens then untied it in the bottom of the fifth. Shimano’s two-out double plated Lansdell, who had singled, stolen second and moved to third on a flyout to right.
Then the Firebells tied it right back up. This time, it was Whitmore, by then relocated to center field, coming through with a clutch two-out double. That plated third baseman Ayaka Yamamoto, who had walked. Whitmore’s hit looked like a home run off the bat, but instead of going over, it hit the bottom of the outfield wall.
Earlier in the game, Whitmore had pulled a foul ball into the Robin Roberts Stadium parking lot. But ultimately, the only home runs she was involved in on Friday were the two she gave up on the mound.
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Then came the dénouement. With righty reliever Payton Coria on the mound for San Francisco in the bottom of the sixth, Edwards led off with a single. Then Benítez and new addition Diana Ibarra, who had come in as a defensive replacement for Davis in center in the top of the inning, walked to load the bases. Hondras followed with a potential double-play ball but beat the throw to first as pinch-runner Thaima Maximiliana crossed the plate to, once again, tie the game.
After Hondras stole second on a first-pitch strike to Lansdell, Firebells manager Matt Williams ordered the first intentional walk in WPBL history, sending Lansdell to first and reloading the bases. Coria then rallied to strike out catcher Maggie Foxx, who was 0-for-4 on the night.
That brought Mackay to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in a tie game. Mackay jumped on Coria’s first offering, a breaking pitch up in the zone, and laced it into shallow center for a tiebreaking two-RBI single.
Queens relief ace Meggie Meidlinger then worked a scoreless seventh inning for the first non-three-inning save in league history, securing for Mackay not only the game-winning hit but the win on the mound as well.
Meidlinger, the league’s oldest player at 38, has finished five of the Queens’ eight games, including four of their five wins. With Friday’s outing, she dropped her league-leading ERA to 1.08. In 8 1/3 innings on the season, she has allowed one run (on the third home run in Whitmore’s three-homer game on Aug. 12) and walked one batter against seven strikeouts.
Friday’s game marked the final confrontation of the regular season between the Queens and the Firebells, with San Francisco winning the season series 3-2.
On Saturday, the Firebells will take on the Boston Hunters at 2 p.m. Eastern time, and the Queens will host the New York Heights at 7:30 p.m. Firebells manager Matt Williams said on Wednesday that he would start pitcher Jill Albayati, but he declined to name a starter when asked again on Friday. Rakyung Kim and Ayami Sato will be the starting pitchers in the nightcap.
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Note
Four members of the Queens’ starting lineup made their first starts of the year at their position in Friday’s game. Manager Eric Young told reporters after the game that was the result of Lansdell, who had started every game at third base this season, offering to play the outfield to make room for Eynon, typically a shortstop, at third base. In addition, with Shimano joining the lineup at first base, Sarah Edwards made her first start in left field.
Transactions
- Prior to this game, the Queens and the Heights completed the first player trade in WPBL history, with New York sending center fielder Diana Ibarra to LA for outfielder/pitcher Suzu Narasaki and infielder Emi Saiki.
Ibarra was 3-for-20 (.150) with a pair of walks in eight games for the Heights, drawing frequent starts in the outfield. She entered Friday’s game as a defensive substitution in center and drew a walk in the team’s game-winning rally in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Narasaki went 1-for-4 with a double and a stolen base for the Queens and also made one disastrous start on the mound, retiring just four of the 14 batters she faced against the Firebells on Aug. 14. Saiki has yet to make her WPBL debut.
According to the WPBL, the trade was arranged by the managers of the respective teams and approved by the league, which is one of two ways that trades can happen in the young league. Per the WPBL’s press release, the other is when the league “arranges a player trade between teams to meet the goals and objectives of the league.”
Queens skipper Eric Young told The IX Sports after the game, “It was a situation where my roster was getting expanded and big, and I didn’t have enough room or innings or positions for those individuals to get playing time.”
Per Young, Heights manager Rocky Henley “was in a situation where … [her] pitching is hurting and position players [are] hurting. … So we talked to each other …. and it was just a situation that came about. I needed some assistance in the outfield and she needed assistance with her pitching, and I think it worked out. I think both parties are very happy.”
Young also provided some context for the idea of trades that “meet the goals and objectives of the league,” saying, “I think from a league standpoint … the good play of the WPBL is not just about one team winning and having all the talent. It’s about everybody showcasing their skills and making sure we stay competitive.”
For the Heights, the emergence of Claire O’Sullivan, which has pushed first baseman London Studer into left field when she’s not pitching, and the presence of center fielder Claire Eccles may have made Ibarra expendable. However, it remains to be seen who will play center when Eccles pitches. Perhaps it will be Narasaki.
Ibarra, who is from Mexico and speaks only Spanish, is happy to have two Spanish-speaking teammates on her new team in fellow Mexican Samaria Benítez and the multilingual Thaima Maximiliana, who is from Curaçao, per AJ Andrews of ESPN. - In addition to announcing the conditions for a trade, the WPBL formalized its expanded rosters on Friday, saying that every team will have a roster of 17 players and must identify two to be inactive for each game. The Queens only had 16 on their roster after Friday’s trade, so Young added 22-year-old pitcher and first-baseman Ayuri Shimano to LA’s roster and started her at first base in Friday’s game. Shimano’s play in the field left a lot to be desired, but she drew two walks, scored twice and had a clutch two-out RBI double in four plate appearances.
A right-handed pitcher and left-handed hitter, Shimano stands closer to the plate than any hitter I can remember. She has her feet on the line of the batter’s box closest to the plate with her hands hanging over the center of the plate, and when she turns her front foot on its toe to load her swing, her foot leaves the front of the box entirely. I’m amazed that approach works, and I wonder how long the umpires will let her get away with it.
The Queens’ inactive players on Friday were outfielder/pitcher Brittney Apgar and rotation ace Ayami Sato. Both of them, Young said, would start Saturday’s game. Speaking of Shimano and others, Young told The IX Sports, “Those players that’ve been here … they’re going to play this weekend. Everybody’s going to play this weekend. You’re going to see everybody on my roster play.” - The Queens finally replaced first base coach Jemile Weeks, two weeks after he was reassigned to be the manager of the Hunters. LA’s new assistant coach is Springfield, Illinois, native Pete Romero. An assistant coach at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, Romero has decades of experience as an assistant coach at the college level.
Asked about the addition, Young told The IX Sports, “I realized that me and [assistant coach] Emma [Charlesworth-Seiler] couldn’t do it by ourselves … and I didn’t want to cheat the players. I thought it was a disservice for them that we couldn’t have practices where we were able to function in a proper manner, so I … indicated that to the brass upstairs.”
It may be coincidental, but in light of those comments, it’s interesting to note that the Queens’ three losses this season were the first three games after Weeks was reassigned. - The Hunters also added a coach. Prior to Friday, the Hunters’ second assistant coach was catcher Beth Greenwood. While guesting in the ESPN booth during Friday’s game, Weeks announced that the team had added 70-year-old former major leaguer Tack Wilson to its staff. Wilson, who appeared in 12 major league games in the 1980s, had a 15-year playing career in the minors, primarily as an outfielder, and has since had a long career as a minor league coach.
The IX Sports’ Howard Megdal contributed reporting for this story.
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