Baseball fans flock to Thunder Bay's grandstands to catch the Women's World Cup qualifiers

It's a good week to be a baseball fan in Thunder Bay, Ont., as the northwestern Ontario city hosts the Women's Baseball World Cup Qualifiers.

The 2024 World Cup Group A Qualifiers kicked off Tuesday with Hong Kong versus South Korea. Team Canada, which has already secured a spot at the World Cup next year in Thunder Bay, is one of six international squads playing this week. Japan will host the Group B Qualifiers next month.

Greg Kasstan of Thunder Bay took the week off work to catch as many games as possible with his scoresheet in tow.

"It's a beautiful day here at Baseball Central," he said. "It's an international venue here."

This isn't the first time Thunder Bay has brought international players to its diamonds – Kasstan recalls two previous world juniors held in the city – but says volunteers have stepped up to the plate to make sure the facilities are fit for the pros.

"The volunteer staff have done a remarkable job in the field," he said. "They've been working really hard and I think it's very obvious for the excellent condition of the field."

One group of girls from Thunder Bay were there to cheer on South Korea. The sports fans, ranging in age from five to 11, had met some of the team's players and said they were nice – which for them, was the deciding factor on who to root for.

While they aren't baseball players themselves, they all said they were happy to be there and spend time with each other. Unfortunately for them, Hong Kong defeated South Korea 9-8.

Davis Viehbeck decided to bring his daughters and their friends there to enjoy the sunshine and see powerful young women in action.

"I grew up playing baseball, I love watching baseball, so it was a perfect activity to get the kids out this summer to see. As you can see, we have all girls with us today and it's great to see female sport," Viehbeck said. "I'm a proud dad of daughters, and I believe that girls can do anything."

Celebrating international talent

Gail Woods tried her hand at most positions on the diamond when she was younger – first, second, shortstop, third base – and said watching the women brings back memories of playing at Thunder Bay's baseball diamonds.

"I just love to see the talent that these women have. It's been really great to watch the plays, the moves, the training, everything," Woods said. "I'm really enjoying this."

She was eager to watch Australia face the U.S. Tuesday afternoon, and then Canada versus Mexico Tuesday evening.

But most of all, it's about seeing women come together to do what they love.

"This sport, I think it's the camaraderie that comes out of it. The challenging yourself to reach that level of higher than what you can do or where you started," she said. 

"Just being together with a great bunch of girls … this is great to see all the countries come in and see everything."

Wednesday's games will also be held at Baseball Central, then the games move to the city's Port Arthur Stadium starting Thursday for the rest of the tournament.