{"id":975369,"date":"2026-08-02T09:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T09:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/975369\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T09:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T09:11:16","slug":"los-angeles-queens-rally-to-win-jubilant-wpbl-debut-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/975369\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Queens rally to win jubilant WPBL debut game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Isabella Villareal practiced with the Los Angeles Queens<\/a> for the first time on Saturday morning, hours before the team\u2019s first game.<\/p>\n

She ended up being in the center of the most important moment in the first game of the Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League\u2019s<\/a> history.<\/p>\n

Villareal hit a pinch-hit double with two outs in the top of the seventh to give the Queens a 10-8 lead they\u2019d hold onto to clinch the first WPBL victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe adrenaline was pumping, but I was also nervous,\u201d Villareal said. \u201cBut I\u2019m so stoked that I got to go in. I blacked out, I don\u2019t even know what I was thinking, I\u2019m just glad I got to prove myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Queens\u2019 Ashton Lansdell, left, and Meggie Meidlinger celebrate after beating the New York Heights during the Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League debut game on Saturday in Springfield, Ill.<\/p>\n

(Jessie Alcheh \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Second baseman Amira Hondras, coming off a strong women\u2019s baseball World Cup debut last week, tied the game in the at-bat prior with a single up the middle to set up Villareal\u2019s heroics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her, \u2018This is your moment,\u2019 and walked away,\u201d Queens manager Eric Young said of Villareal. \u201cAnd she went and got the big hit even though she just joined us today. You never know who is going to do it, because everyone is going to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Queens trailed 7-2 in the second inning but slowly chipped away. Maggie Foxx, whose two-run single in the first inning was the first hit in league history, went 2-for-2 with two runs, a walk and a stolen base and pitched two innings while giving up one run.<\/p>\n

Villareal, who turned 20 just two days prior, didn\u2019t know she would play at all on Saturday. Young decided to pinch hit her for designated hitter Thaima Maximiliana despite having never seen her hit in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was standing next to [Young] before he told Bella she was going to hit and she was in shock,\u201d said Mo\u2019ne Davis (0-for-4, one run). \u201cBut you know, she stayed calm the whole time, and everyone was just so supportive throughout the entire game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first WPBL game was delayed 90 minutes by rainy conditions that went on to affect that seventh inning, when Michelle Roche popped up to right field and New York\u2019s Natsuki Yonetani lost the ball in the wind.<\/p>\n

Davis, who played center field all night, said the conditions made it difficult to field cleanly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just relied on each other,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were all just talking on every single pitch. The last inning was very, very tough. We were getting directions from our coaches and we could not see. But you know we\u2019ll talk over that during practice. But we were just just making sure we had each other\u2019s back, you know, putting each other in the right position, and communication is key.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Former <\/p>\n

Former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player Maybelle Blair, left, and Los Angeles Queens\u2019 Elodie O\u2019Sullivan, right, talk before the inaugural Women\u2019s Professional Baseball League game Saturday in Springfield, Ill.<\/p>\n

(Lexie Knight \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Fans wrapped around the concourse and emptied the merchandise stand before the delayed first pitch and witnessed a torch passing between the league\u2019s current players and past women\u2019s baseball legends.<\/p>\n

One of those legends, 99-year-old Maybelle Blair<\/a>, threw the ceremonial first pitch to San Francisco pitcher Kelsie Whitmore.<\/p>\n

\u201cKelsie was very emotional, and I just went over there and gave her a hug, and I know how much this means to her, and then also Maybellel Blair,\u201d Davis said. \u201cI went up to her. She\u2019s the same person she has always been. Just super high energy. I told her to throw a strike, and she was like, \u2018You know I will throw a strike.\u2019 She gave me that sass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foxx is also 20 years old and is listed as a catcher but played in the outfield and pitched on Saturday. New York manager Rocky Henley noted that most players are going to have to play multiple positions, including pitch, because teams have just 15-player rosters.<\/p>\n

Foxx, Maximiliana, Hondras and Villareal make up a young core around stars like Davis and Ashton Lansdell that make the Queens, one of the favorites to win the league.<\/p>\n

The bats coming alive late on Saturday were a good sign of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that we\u2019ve all been working towards, culminating this event, and it feels like it kind of feels like another baseball game, but it feels like something that we\u2019ve been putting in the work for for 70 years now,\u201d Foxx said.<\/p>\n

The Queens won\u2019t play again until Wednesday when they take on the Boston Hunters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I walked on the field I started crying because of how much this moment meant, and how much it meant to everybody,\u201d Foxx said. \u201cIt means everything to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Ill.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Isabella Villareal practiced with the Los Angeles Queens for the first time on Saturday morning, hours before…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":975370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[391410,1582,276,21807,81808,227620,391405,391409,2961,262848,224,391408,5337,391407,391406,4413,10201,5213,3007,34175],"class_list":["post-975369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baseball-legend","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-first-game","tag-first-pitch","tag-important-moment","tag-isabella-villareal","tag-jubilant-women","tag-la","tag-league-history","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-queens-rally","tag-losangeles","tag-maggie-foxx","tag-mone-davis","tag-queens","tag-run","tag-saturday-morning","tag-team","tag-young"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117025145336550998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/975370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}