September 22, 2026 | Springfield, IL: Game 5 \u2013 the final battle of the WPBL Championship. The Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League\u2019s inaugural season couldn\u2019t have scripted a better ending: a dream for those who live for the magic of a winner-take-all game. The Queens captured the first two meetings, but the Firebells fought back to tie the series, winning the next two. They say, you\u2019re only as good as your last game. Tonight, we found out which team was good enough.<\/p>\n
The Queens saved their best for last behind their legendary Japanese pitcher, Ayami Sato, who made history with the league\u2019s first complete game, a masterpiece of five hits and no free passes on 71 pitches \u2013 and a shutout to boot. Sato held the most dangerous lineup in the league to four hits, days after the Firebells tagged her fellow hurlers for 17 runs \u2013 preventing SF from scoring in the seventh inning of the series for the fifth straight time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A pair of double plays were LA\u2019s defensive friend, and Mo\u2019ne Davis, who quietly made some key hits throughout the season, clocked the only two for her team tonight: a single to center to load the bases, then showcasing her speed \u2013 beating out an infield dribbler.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a narrative of a different color, defined by a classic pitching duel. SF\u2019s Jill Albayati, Niki Eckert and Liz Gilder didn\u2019t give up much, a combined seven innings of an earned run on two hits. But a walk that was as good as a hit, a ball dumped in a fortuitous spot past Amanda Gianelloni, a ricocheted shot off Andr\u00e9anne Leblanc\u2019s first base glove and a fielder\u2019s choice RBI by captain Ashton Lansdell sealed the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And before the Queens doused themselves with bottles of bubbly and Sato became the historical MVP, skipper Eric Young Sr. added another Championship feather to his cap to go along with the World Series Ring he earned as the first base coach for the MLB\u2019s Atlanta Braves.<\/p>\n
We tip our caps to Robin Roberts Stadium and to Springfield, Illinois, the city that\u2019s not just famous anymore for Abe Lincoln, Route 66 and the Horseshoe Sandwich. After 70 years, it\u2019s the place that put women\u2019s professional baseball back on the map. And what a thrilling ride it\u2019s been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 22, 2026 | Springfield, IL: Game 5 \u2013 the final battle of the WPBL Championship. The Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-355719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}