The inaugural season of the Women’s Professional Baseball League came to an exciting conclusion on September 22, 2026 after the Los Angeles Queens won a pitcher’s duel 2-0 over the San Francisco Firebells in Game 5.
The Firebells had forced Game 5 after a 20-hit Game 4 resulting in a 17-4 win over the Queens. The league-record offense of Game 4 didn’t materialize into clinching the Championship though, as their bats were silenced by the pitching prowess of the Queens’ Ayami Sato.
That meant that the 2 runs the Queens pieced together in the 3rd inning, against Firebell pitcher Jill Albayati, were the only ones scored during the well-matched Championship game. Mo’ne Davis was the only Queen to log a hit in Game 5. She managed to put 2 hits on the board for her team – coming in clutch for the final game of the season.
Sato pitched an impressive postseason to an ERA of 3.94 over 16 IP with 3 wins out of her 4 starts. Albayati was no slouch through the postseason either. With an ERA of 4.06 over 10.1 IP, it’s easy to see how the matchup ended up as intense as it was between these two starters.
Even looking at post season run production from these two teams shows just how competitive they were. With the top 10 contributors for RBIs in the post season being just about split down the middle between LA and SF, with Denae Benites being the lone New York Heights player to crack the top 10 despite her team appearing in fewer post season games. Benites clocked 6 RBIs in just 3 postseason games. Samaria Benítez also only played in 3 games, but for the Queens who made 8 postseason appearances total.
Source: Women’s Professional Baseball League Stats – Filtered for postseason, 2026, all teams.
What These Numbers Don’t Tell You
For those who are doing the math at home, yes, San Francisco outscored Los Angeles 36-33 in the post season just from the RBIs from the top 10 (pictured above) alone. But many of those runs came in Game 4’s 17-4 victory and too few came in Game 5. But that’s baseball for you! You can’t always get the bats hot when you need them. Who’s on the mound can make a huge difference in the outcome, no matter who is at the plate.
Even though San Francisco had the better offense over the entirety of the postseason, (54 total RBIs to LA’s 52 when looking at every RBI across the full postseason for both rosters), Ayami Sato’s complete game shutout with 0 walks, combined with just enough offense from her team, was enough to clinch the title.
The Los Angeles Queens are our first WPBL champions and Ayami Sato just wrote herself into the first line of the league’s her-story!
I am excited for what next season holds for the WPBL and can’t wait to get to a game. This year has been a thrill to watch the return of women to professional baseball. We’re just getting started.
