This is the third story in a five-part series called A Sport of Their Own. Next: Help wanted: female coaches, umpires.

You can read Part 1 - Thousands of girls, women playing baseball in Canada here.

You can read Part 2 - Talkin’ baseball: From sexism to career success here.

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Women’s national team a world power

By Scott Langdon

Canadian Baseball Network

They don’t come together often, but when they do Canada’s second-ranked, national women’s baseball team is one of the best in the world with a nucleus of veteran and up-and-coming players, many of whom are multi-sport athletes.

The team plays in international tournaments such as the Pan Am Games and the Women’s World Cup of Baseball, a global championship series staged every two years.

There have been eight World Cup tournaments with the first in 2004 in Edmonton, Alta. Canada won the bronze medal at the 2018 event, beating the United States’ team in an extra-inning thriller in Viera, Fla., resulting in their No. 2 world ranking. Canada has finished top five in every World Cup.

The men’s national baseball team, currently ranked 10th by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) recently qualified for the 2019 Pan Am Games in Peru. Women’s baseball is excluded from the Games this year.

Japan holds the No. 1 ranking in women’s baseball and has won the World Cup the last six times. There is a four-team women’s professional league in Japan.

“I tip my hat to our players because their dedication is the secret to our success,” said Andre Lachance, Baseball Canada, a 14-year veteran of the program.

Lachance recently stepped down as field manager, replaced by New Westminster, B.C., native Aaron Myette, a coach with the team since 2016 and a former player with four Major League Baseball organizations.

“All of our players are either working or in school and they find ways to keep playing and stay ready between tournaments. Typically, we only come together for a week of practices before an event so their level of commitment is fabulous. They’re amazing people,” he added.

The team features core veteran players such as infielders Ashley Stephenson, 36, and Kate Psota, 32, who have represented Canada in all eight World Cups. Some players are under 18 years of age including pitcher Allison Schroder, Fruitvale, BC and Katlyn Ross, Redcliff, Alta, both 16 during the 2018 World Cup. They formed the battery that closed out the bronze medal victory.

Canada’s team features multi-sport athletes such as the two veterans who both played high level hockey. Others on the team are softball or basketball players.

The team’s veteran players are augmented each year when Lachance and others scout national 16U, 21U and senior-age tournaments, conduct an annual, week-long development camp in Cuba and hold tryouts for the squad.

The major event in 2019 is a qualifying tournament for the 2020 Women’s World Cup. A location for the tournament has yet to be announced by the WBSC, the global governing body.

Quality of play

Women’s World Cup baseball follows all the typical rules of the sport with 90-foot base paths and a pitching mound 60 ft six inches from home plate. Games are seven innings. Outfield fences are often brought in 10-to-12-feet to encourage more home runs.

Unlike Major League Baseball games which increasingly involve walks, strikeouts or home runs, the common “three outcomes” resulting from analytics and defensive shifts, the women’s game is fast-paced with “lots of balls in play and lots of small ball,” according to Psota.

“Technically and tactically, our games are fun to watch,” she said. “We use aluminum bats and 340-foot home runs are hit.”

Lachance says pitchers’ fastballs are clocked in the low-to-mid 70 miles per hour, but some Japanese and U.S. hurlers throw in the low 80s.

“Our game needs more exposure because people don’t realize the talent level,” says Stephenson. “We play very good fundamental baseball with strong defence and lots of action. In one of our games against Cuba they tried four suicide squeeze plays. When was the last time you saw one of those in a major league game?”

Atmosphere and exposure

Attendance at World Cup games varies from country to country. Crowds tend to be larger in countries such as Japan and Korea, says Psota.

“Twenty thousand people attended the gold medal game in Japan in 2008. But there were often only two hundred or so fans in the seats for the 2018 tournament in Florida,” she said. “But regardless of the fan support, we are always treated like high-level athletes. The WBSC does a good job of that.”

There is no national television coverage of World Cup games, but the WBSC started live streaming games on its YouTube channel in 2016. They attracted three million-plus viewers in 212 countries in 2018. Social media added another 13.6 million impressions according to the WBSC.

Many people involved in Canadian female baseball believe more coverage of the national team and the World Cup would spur growth and development at the grassroots level across the country. But that isn’t an easy fix according to Brenda Andress, the first commissioner of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL).

“Having CWHL games on Sportsnet now is massively important because it showcases women and allows young girls to have mentors. We would like to see a women’s sports channel some day, but it isn’t a cause. It has to be a fan-based business,” she said.

Andress is also founder of She Is Sport, a new organization dedicated to “give women the opportunity to reap the benefits of having sport in their lives from the top down through increasing viewership and attendance and bottom up via participation” according to its web site (www.sheissport.com).

Stephenson, who is deciding this winter to either retire or keep playing for the national team, says the lack of exposure can be disheartening.

“It is disheartening sometimes because usually we compete every two years in the World Cup and people don’t realize how good we are. Like all of our players, I work out year ‘round. I train in the gym five days a week to stay competitive,” she said.

Psota and a group of women have formed an ad hoc Women’s Development Program to keep playing baseball in between World Cups and other international tournaments. It is typical of the effort many national team players make to keep playing.

“Our Team Red plays a 20 to 22-game schedule in a Toronto boys’ midget league. Team Blue plays in a bantam boys’ league. Typically, players from these two teams and others form Team Ontario that competes in the national championships.”

Coaching

Lachance stepped down as long-time field manager of the national team in part because he thinks change is healthy for the program.

“There is a new generation of players coming up and now is the time to empower others,” he said.

“I didn’t want to coach the team when first asked. I thought they must be crazy. I ended up staying 14 years. I wouldn’t go back to coaching boys now,” he added.

Canada’s team had four male coaches and one female, former player Patricia Landry, at the 2018 World Cup. Long-time national team player Samantha Magalas was the only female coach for the recent Pan Am Games team.

Lachance was asked if the national team would ever have a female head coach.

“For sure we will have a women head coach in the future. It would be fantastic,” he said.

Stephenson agrees and would like to be that person.

“I want that job,” she says. “But I don’t have enough coaching experience just yet. I haven’t decided if I’ll stop playing. I’ll take the necessary coaching certifications and start at the provincial level, but coaching the national team is something I aspire to.”

If the dedication and commitment she and her teammates have made to playing baseball is applied to her coaching goals, don’t bet against her. Like Psota, Stephenson knows what it takes to elevate the girls’ game and keep Canada’s national team one of the best in the world.

Next: Help Wanted: female coaches, umpires