Team Canada aims to win its way into 2024 Women's Baseball World Cup as qualifier gets underway
Squad is 1 of 6 in northwestern Ontario looking for a spot at the 2024 Women's Baseball World Cup
The Canadian national women's baseball team may have already qualified for next year's World Cup championship, but that doesn't mean they'll be taking it easy on the field in Thunder Bay, Ont., this week.
Team Canada is one of six international squads playing in the 2024 World Cup Group A Qualifiers, with games getting underway Tuesday, while the Group B qualifiers will be played in Japan next month.
But even though Canada has already earned its berth in next year's World Cup — which will also take place in Thunder Bay — head coach Anthony Pluta said the team, which is ranked third in the world, still has something to prove.
"Yes, we don't have to win to be able to go in next year," Pluta said. "We don't want to drop too much in the rankings and have us go into a World Cup almost feeling like we didn't deserve to be there. We're coming in trying to win our way in."
Canada will play its first game of the tournament Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET when they face Mexico at Baseball Central.
"I think what you're going to see out of us is the never-give-up, grind-style baseball," Pluta said. "We've got some hard-throwing pitchers on the mound. We've got a little bit of power at the plate.
"We're going to be a gelled group that is able to come out and grind our way through as many wins as as we're supposed to have."
Given the players on the team are from all across Canada, Pluta said leadership is important if the squad is going to form a cohesive unit on the field.
"Some of the older players, and more experienced players that have been here are able to make make the welcome nice with the younger talent, then doing some things off-field, doing some team bonding, some experiences."
That includes taking in the Thunder Bay Border Cats in a Northwoods minor-league game last Friday. But Pluta said there won't be too many opportunities for off-the-field team-building this week, given the hectic schedule in Thunder Bay.
Remembering 'baseball's supposed to be fun'
Veteran infielder Zoe Hicks said when it comes to any pre-game jitters that may be felt by newer players, it's a matter of "reminding them that it is a game, right?"
"It might be a little bit more pressure, it might be a little bit of a bigger stage than they're used to," said Hicks, who plays on both the Canadian national women's baseball and softball teams. "But baseball is supposed to be fun, and we all love it so much.
"So just to be able to take that breath and say, 'OK, we're focusing on the simple things, right?' Catching the ball, throwing the ball, playing the game, how we love it."
Hicks got into baseball by chance, after the Team Manitoba coach saw her playing ball with her senior team in her hometown of Boissevain.
She then got an invite to play with the Manitoba team at the national championships, which were being hosted in Stonewall that year.
"I said: 'Sure, why not? Might as well,'" Hicks said. "I was home from college and was just looking for something to do. I kind of stuck with it every summer since then."
'OK, we're focusing on the simple things, right?' Catching the ball, throwing the ball, playing the game, how we love it."- Zoe Hicks, Team Canada infielder
And while she plays both high-level baseball and softball, she doesn't have a preference when it comes to those sports.
"The day-in, day-out of baseball and softball is very different," Hicks said. "Softball is super-high intensity, very quick.
"You have to be on all the time," she said. "Baseball is very much relaxed. You have time, you can kind of take a breath and make a play. So I think it's cool to bounce back and forth between the two and to be able to appreciate the differences."
One player who admits she's feeling some pre-tournament nerves is Ela Day-Bedard, who's playing her first season with the national team.
"Of course I'm nervous, but it's a good nervous," she said. "I'm nervous where you're excited to get started.
"I take a deep breath, and at night I talk to my dad a lot, and he's just like, 'do your own thing,' right?" Day-Bedard said. "You got here. That was the hardest part. And now just do your own thing."
Team Canada will face Korea, China, Australia and the United States over the next week, and Pluta admits there are some uncertainties. This is her first international competition, apart from last summer's friendship exhibition series against the United States.
"I've heard rumours of different teams having phenomenal athletes," Pluta said. "I know a lot of the players that we played in the friendship series with the U.S. last year are coming back. There's some new ones that that we'll see in the mix. But to me, we're just going to take every game as it goes and we'll see what happens."
One thing that is certain, however, is people who go to Baseball Central and Port Arthur Stadium to watch the games this week will be treated to some great baseball.
"I think most people, when they come watch women's baseball, they're surprised by how good it is," Pluta said. "There is really no difference other than some of the power and speed that the game takes place at.
"We don't have the 90-plus [mph] pitching that you might see on a on a guys' team, but we do have the ability to do everything else that that they do," Pluta said. "We have hitters that'll hit home runs. We have hitters that'll bunt and run. We have pitchers that throw really hard."
A full schedule of this week's games is available on the Baseball Canada website.