Team Canada confident heading into Women's Baseball World Cup finals in Thunder Bay

Despite facing some very tough competition over the coming days, the members of Canada's national women's baseball team are feeling good about their chances.

Team Canada is one of six competing in the 2024 Women's Baseball World Cup finals, which get underway Sunday at Port Arthur Stadium. The finals are scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 3.

"Obviously there's some nerves, right?" said assistant coach, and member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, Ashley Stephenson. "We haven't played in a World Cup in a long time. COVID-19 obviously put a dent in, well, everything, not just baseball."

"We have a lot of really young players, even if they've been with us for the last three or four years, they wouldn't have actually been through a World Cup," said Stephenson, who was a member of the country's first national women's baseball team in 2004, and won silver medals at the 2008 and 2016 World Cup finals.

"We're just trying to make sure that they play their game like they're here for a reason," Stephenson said. "Just picture all the big things, stay in the moment."

This year's team, Stephenson said, is a well-rounded one.

"We're built on speed, have lots of pop at the plate, and have arms that throw a lot of strikes and will put pressure on their hitters," she said.

But the competition is going to be tough, with Canada facing defending champions Japan, Chinese Taipei, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States over the coming days.

"Everybody goes into these tournaments thinking that 'Oh well, Team USA, Team Japan, Team Chinese Taipei, they're really big names' and they know them all really well, right?" said Team Canada outfielder Cassie Matlock, one of the new faces on this year's team. "They kind of have this reputation built up."

She says she has the advantage of coming in and not really know those reputations all that well. 

"We've got a new team. Everybody's got a new team. We're all just players doing the same thing," says Matlock.

"Everybody's putting in the preparation. So just to come in here and be ourselves and do what we came here to do, I think is how we'll be successful."

Manager Anthony Pluta, in his second year with Team Canada, said while the team did lose some of its veterans over the offseason, the current lineup is "phenomenal."

"There's so many strengths between the leadership of some of the returning players and some of the veteran players, the excitement of the young players who are coming up, and having that fire of: 'This is the coolest experience of my life,'" he said."I think we've always had a pretty good team that just comes together as as one unit."