In just a few days, the first-ever WPBL Postseason will begin. On the evening of September 9, Chicago Cubs legend Lee Smith will throw out the ceremonial first pitch to get things going, and the first 400 fans through the gates will receive an Amanda Gianelloni bobblehead!\u00a0<\/p>\n
No. 4 seed Boston Hunters will face the No. 1 seed San Francisco Firebells in the first game of a 3-game series to decide who moves on to the inaugural WPBL Championship.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tough to bet against San Francisco in a best-of-three series against a team that they have outscored 45-21 in a span of four games. The Firebells offense is relentless, and although they had some sloppy defense in a recent loss to NY, they are very solid in the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kelsie Whitmore was the number one draft pick for a reason \u2013 a star three-way player who leads by example and is a threat anywhere on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her backup band are no slouches either. There is not a weak link in the SF lineup, and on any given day, a player with a bat in their hand has reached base, while many have crossed the plate. Look for Skylar Kaplan and Andr\u00e9anne Leblanc to be in the news \u2013 yeah, they are that good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As far as the mound goes, well, just look at the numbers above. And their pitching roster just got even stronger with the return of Jill Aybayati \u2013 not to mention their offense \u2013 as if they need any more help in that department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Boston will have their hands full against a San Francisco team that has dominated them, four games to none. If the Hunters have any chance of an epic turnaround, they\u2019ll need to clean up their defensive act and find a lineup that best suits their offense. The recent move of Lexi Hastings to the leadoff spot has proved fruitful \u2013 she is the perfect combination of a power hitter with speed on the base paths, not to mention her killer arm in center field.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pitching-wise, Kate Blunt and Ma\u00efka Dumais have been Boston\u2019s best on the bump with 16 earned runs between them \u2013 but the runs scored on their watch, and most of the Hunters\u2019 hurlers, have been due to many wild pitches and free passes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other players who have done some damage, but cooled off of late, are Molly Paddison, Denver Bryant and Ticara Guldenhuis. Their contributions at the plate could tip the scales in Boston\u2019s favor for a longshot upset.<\/p>\n
If Boston can squeeze out a win, it seems unlikely SF won\u2019t take the rubber match, but then again, stranger things have happened in the WPBL.<\/p>\n
Schedule<\/p>\n
Sept 9 \u2013 Boston Hunters @ San Francisco Firebells \u2013 6:00 PM CT<\/p>\n
As No. 1 seed, San Francisco is the home team for the first game of the series, and the first 400 fans through the gate will receive an Amanda Gianelloni bobblehead.<\/p>\n
Chicago Cubs legend Lee Smith will throw out the ceremonial first pitch to open up the WPBL Postseason. Will San Francisco keep their record against Boston clean, or will the Hunters get the upset?<\/p>\n
Sept 11 \u2013 San Francisco Firebells @ Boston Hunters \u2013 5:00 PM CT<\/p>\n
Boston hosts San Francisco in the second game of the series, and fans who attended Wednesday\u2019s game can attend for free!<\/p>\n
Sept 13 \u2013 Boston Hunters @ San Francisco Firebells \u2013 2:00 PM CT<\/p>\n
If the teams are tied after two, the series will go to a third game to decide who moves on to the WPBL Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In just a few days, the first-ever WPBL Postseason will begin. On the evening of September 9, Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-455737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}