{"id":356476,"date":"2026-09-25T06:25:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T06:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356476\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T06:25:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T06:25:44","slug":"firebells-queens-prepare-for-winner-takes-all-wpbl-game-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356476\/","title":{"rendered":"Firebells, Queens prepare for winner-takes-all WPBL Game 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. \u2014 The inaugural Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League<\/a> season will end tonight after a thrilling five-game championship series between the top-seeded San Francisco Firebells and the second-seeded Los Angeles Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, as many great baseball series do, this one has had a bit of everything. There were grand slams in Games 1 and 2. There have been fierce comebacks. There have been different stars each night helping to deliver big wins for their teams.<\/p>\n

A truly fitting ending to a season of celebrating the history of women\u2019s professional baseball and hope for a lasting future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never wanted to do anything else except be a baseball player, and to have it be something we can consider as a career is a game-changer,\u201d San Francisco shortstop Joely Leguizamon<\/a> told reporters after recording four hits in Sunday\u2019s Game 4 victory. \u201cFor it to be a professional league and us to carry that on our shoulders, it means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep The IX Sports at your next game! <\/p>\n

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Leguizamon has been vital to this Firebells run, registering a team-high eight hits in the championship series. She is batting .571 with six RBI and a big home run in Game 3<\/a>. As a team, San Francisco is hitting .422 in the championship series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re pretty locked in,\u201d Leguizamon said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been too long of a season, but enough for us to understand our job, understand our role. It definitely feels good. We know we\u2019re making history, but ultimately we\u2019re here to do a job so that\u2019s been the mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Queens built up a 2-0 lead with come-from-behind victories in each of the first two games, but with their backs against the wall, the Fireballs have avoided elimination.<\/p>\n

They won 10-5 in Game 3 and then exploded for a 17-4 victory in Game 4<\/a> to extend the series again. San Francisco recorded 20 hits on Sunday, including eight in the fourth inning alone. Their pitchers held the Queens to eight total.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the mantras when we started the season was, \u2018pass the baton,\u2019\u201d Firebells manager Matt Williams<\/a> said. \u201cThe idea of us as a collective winning games is really important to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though the Firebells might have some momentum behind them, the Queens won\u2019t go down without a fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve just lost a little bit of focus these last two games,\u201d Los Angeles third baseman Ashton Lansdell<\/a> said. \u201cWe\u2019ll come out inspired, ready to win and hopefully everybody on the roster, on the staff, comes out ready, locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queens closer Meggie Meidlinger pointed to the team\u2019s experience in the semifinals facing the New York Heights as a good practice run for elimination games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll come locked in because it\u2019s do or die, the last game no matter what so we\u2019re going to be leaving it all out on the field.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Game 2 was any indication, these Queens have the potential to score in dominant fashion, too. They scored 10 runs in the fourth inning, including a grand slam by second baseman Ayuri Shimano<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both teams will return to Robin Roberts<\/a> Stadium on Tuesday after a welcome off day, ready to play the biggest game the sport has seen in decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be pretty cool,\u201d Lansdell said. \u201cIt all comes down to the last game, so it\u2019s gonna be special; it\u2019s gonna be invigorating. All the emotions are gonna be pretty high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women\u2019s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women\u2019s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women\u2019s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Ill. \u2014 The inaugural Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League season will end tonight after a thrilling five-game championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[123380,131076,93643,123254,9,24,63,122,124,123,131080,129331],"class_list":["post-356476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-ashton-lansdell","tag-joely-leguizamon","tag-matt-williams","tag-meggie-meidlinger","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-wpbl-championship-series","tag-wpbl-postseason"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356476","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=356476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}