THUNDER BAY – One of the missions of the Thunder Bay International Baseball Association (TBIBA) is to promote the game to a younger audience, especially among women and girls.
There may have been no better way to ignite that spark than with what took place at Port Arthur Stadium over the last week.
The top six national women’s baseball teams on the planet competed in the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation Women’s Baseball World Cup, which was won by Japan on Saturday afternoon.
“When you see Team Canada win a bronze medal and the exceptional play of the United States and Japan, it shows the young players what it takes to become the world’s best,” said Nick Melchiorre, who is the president of the TBIBA.
“I’m certain that we’re planting a lot of seeds and we’ll see that grow over the next decade or so.”
Melchiorre said that there were a lot of positives from the week, with some of the biggest being the lack of bad weather and the enthusiasm that was shown by the players and the volunteers.
“There were also a lot of mothers coming to the games with their daughters, so I think we exposed the sport to a lot of people,” Melchiorre added.
“The women’s game is growing and I’m sure that in the next 10 or 15 years, you’ll see a professional women’s baseball league in North America.”
The Canadian women’s national team has been in Thunder Bay for the last three summers. They faced the United States in the Friendship Series in 2022 and hosted the World Cup Group A stage event last year.
“Not only have we been able to perform in front of our home crowd every night, but we were also able to win a bronze medal for them, which is pretty cool,” Canadian outfielder Sena Catterall said.
“I think we made them proud and that’s one of the things that we came here to try and do this week.”
United States manager Veronica Alvarez said that the support from the people of Thunder Bay has been awesome for all three years that the team has been in the city.
“The final against Japan was well supported and any time we played against Canada, there was a big crowd,” Alvarez added.
“We’ve also been able to explore a little bit of Thunder Bay during our time here. We’ve gone to some really good restaurants and we’ve met a lot of nice people.”
This was the third world championship that Thunder Bay has hosted in the last 15 years.
The World Junior Baseball Championship took place at Port Arthur Stadium in 2010 and the WBSC Under-18 Baseball World Cup was held there in 2017.
“We’ll be in the hunt for something in the future for sure,” Melchiorre said.
“We’re going to review everything that we did here and make sure that next event is going to be bigger and better.”
Tournament Award Winners
- Most Valuable Player: Miu Shiraishi (Japan – led the tournament with a .615 batting average)
- Best Defensive Player: Sena Catterall (Canada – also led the tournament in stolen bases with six and runs scored with nine)
All World Team
- Left-Handed Pitcher: Liz Gilder (Canada)
- Right-Handed Pitcher: Miyu Shimizu (Japan)
- Catcher: Nanako Hanabusa (Japan)
- First Base: Naomi Ryan (United States)
- Second Base: Alex Hugo (United States)
- Shortstop: Mia Valcke (Canada)
- Third Base: Edith De Leija (Mexico)
- Left Field: Miu Shiraishi (Japan)
- Centre Field: Sena Catterall (Canada)
- Right Field: Miwa Naraoka (Japan)
- Designated Hitter: Remi Schaber (United States)