August 30, 2026 | Springfield, IL: With the Postseason quickly approaching and a lot of baseball business to settle, the stage was set for a showdown between the top two home run leaders in the league. If this were a writers’ room, that would have been the story we were planning to tell tonight. But no one could foresee the twist that would unfold in the bottom of the final frame.
The Firebells drew initial blood on a passed ball to start their half of the first. In the top of the second – the score knotted at one – what a difference Denae made – tying Whitmore at nine apiece in the long ball race with a grand slam to center, giving the Heights a 5-1 advantage.
SF pulled within two in the bottom half with base hits by Jua Park and Samantha Gutierrez off wild pitches from Raykung Kim.
In the third, New York tacked on another run, and there may have been more, but Amanda Gianelloni went airborne, preventing Suzu Narasaki’s sharp grounder from drifting into the outfield. The toss to second just missed the mark, but a heads-up Joely Leguizamon gunned down Elodie Ciamarro, who was gunning for third.
The Firebells loaded the bases in the bottom half and could’ve caused a whole lot of damage if not for Perez’s diving stop of Gutierrez’s sharp shot to short that got the runner at second. Kim then closed out the inning, erasing Jordan Eyster on a called strike three.
NY padded their lead 9-4 in the top of the sixth on a bad hop, a passed ball, an offline toss across the diamond, and, of course, London Studer’s RBI single to center.
In the bottom of the seventh, Claire O’Sullivan took to the hill, and the Firebells caught fire.
Alexia Jorge got a leadoff walk, Kaplan lined a single to left center, and after Jua Park reached base on a routine play gone awry, Gutierrez laced a two-run double.
With runners on second and third, and no outs, O’Sullivan nabbed Ela Day-Bedard looking, and Gianelloni lined a shot back to the box. Whitmore, the tying run at the plate, was intentionally walked; Leguizamon hit a first-pitch RBI single up the middle to pull within a pair, and Andréanne Leblanc, who was beaten up defensively all night long, with two away on a 3-2 count, launched a walk-off grand slam into center field – the first walk-off in the WPBL and her first home run of the season.
Needless to say, Leblanc was Player of the Game, and for another first, she was doused with a bucket full of Gatorade.