Canada’s baseball women look to hockey for inspiration

Growing sport joins Pan Am Games for 1st time

Revue de presse

By Mike Brophy, CBC Sports, le 21 juillet 2015

Women's hockey did not gain overnight acceptance, and yet female hockey players are now being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Talk about a giant leap in a relatively short period of time.

Women's baseball players hope their sport enjoys a similar growth.

"I grew up playing hockey as well as baseball and the comparison I make is, once women's hockey was added to the Olympics the sport doubled, tripled in size," said Team Canada third baseman Ashley Stephenson. "It became huge — get it out there and get it on TV. Now you look at the world championship of women's hockey and they are selling out 20,000 seat arenas. Players like Angela James and Geraldine Heaney made women's hockey famous so hopefully 15 years from now people will be saying our names for helping grow our sport."

Women's baseball is a part of the 2015 Pan Am Games for the first time; also the first time the sport has been included in a multi-sport event. The United States and Venezuela played the first game of the tournament — the U.S. won 10-6 — and then Canada beat Cuba 13-1 in the nightcap.

Stephenson, Canada's oldest player at 32, grew up in Mississauga, Ont., and got her start on the diamond playing t-ball.

"I actually played softball, too," Stephenson said. "As soon as there was girls' baseball, when I was 14, I switched."

Stephenson and Kate Psota of Burlington, Ont., are two of Canada's veterans who have been a part of the program since it began in 2004 and have played in all six Women's World Cups, which are held every two years.

Canada is currently ranked fourth in the world, having won three bronze and one silver medal in six World Cups.

Playing with the boys
Women's baseball is a work in progress. Some in the Twitter world responded to tweets about women's baseball at the Pan Am Games by inquiring, 'Don't you mean women's softball?'

Nope, women play baseball, too.

Stephenson said making people understand the discrepancy between women's softball and baseball is an ongoing and endless chore. One she is happy to undertake.

"Some people ask if we get frustrated being asked that, but not really," Stephenson said. "I'd rather people ask and know we're out there and know we exist as opposed to assuming we play softball."

Psota, like Stephenson, grew up playing baseball with boys — much the way many of the top female hockey players in the world did in their sport — and she said it was hugely beneficial in getting her to the top of the sport she loves.

"It was really good and I played with the same group of guys for four or five years," Psota said. "They were really good to me. I was just one of the guys. I was really lucky."

As a veteran, Psota has a good perspective on how her sport has grown.

"I think the quality of the product is getting better," Psota said. "I don't know if it is because there are more girls playing now or the quality of coaching is better, but it seems the younger players are pushing us."

No contest
As for Canada's Pan Am opener, it was close for a few minutes in the Canada-Cuba match; 0-0 after two innings. But Canada scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to take a 2-0 lead Cuba could not overcome. An eight-run outburst by Canada in the sixth inning sealed the deal for the host country.

Canada's game against Cuba, though ultimately one-sided, had its treasured moments.

In the first inning Canadian left-fielder Kelsey Lalor made a spectacular diving catch. Later, Cuban right-fielder Odrisleisis Peguero snagged a ball and drilled a shot to third base to make an out on a Canadian base runner who erred in not respecting her arm.

Stephenson acknowledges men's baseball and women's baseball are different; just like junior hockey and the NHL are not the same. Yet at both levels, players display passion and love for the sport.

"The biggest thing is, if you come expecting to see home runs hit over the fence, you probably won't see that and you might be disappointed," Stephenson said. "We had a couple of hits to the fence. If you come expecting to see good, sound baseball — ground balls, making good throws and hitting cutoffs — you'll be happy. You see the passion we have."

Revue de presse publiée par Jacques Lanciault.