[Litty]

2021

The season began with the first amateur draft featuring the two new teams. Despite having the worst record in the league, Cape Cod were relegated to the third overall pick. Their first overall pick from 2020, Mikala Keaton, only appeared in 3 matches for the Sirens, giving up a hit and walk as well as recording a strikeout in 3.2 innings of work. With their first pick as a WBLA team, the Bristol Bears chose A.J. (Anna Jane) Timan out of Maryland. Timan was a hard-hitting centrefielder who had hit .306 and 10 home runs in 40 matches for the Terrapins in 2021. For their first pick, Charlotte chose Edwina Villegas, a second basewoman out of Seaside HS in Seaside, CA. Villegas had hit .473 in 24 matches for Seaside in 2021 and had promising contact and discipline.

Once again Salisbury made major trades involving prospects. On July 29th, they gave up the #18 and #22 prospect in order to acquire reliver Terri Been from Bristol. Been had a 3.51 ERA in 33.1 innings of work. They also traded away the #54 prospect Craig Adams and .281 hitting leftfielder Alvin Kaplan to Richmond for setup reliever, Quinn Martin.

Under the league’s new format, there was finally new divisions winners. Cape Cod went from worst to first, winning the North Division (and securing the best record in the WBLA) with 37-11. They finished the season winning 11 of their last 12, including a 10-game winning streak. They had also finished July winning 10 of 12 to end the month. The Valkyries finished second, securing a wildcard spot with a record of 29-19. Also on 29-19 were the Salisbury Riveters and Richmond Storm, who played a tie-breaker to determine the winner of the South Division. Richmond won 5-2, giving them the second seeding in the playoffs with a record of 30-19. Charlotte matched Cape Cod’s record of 14-34 in 2019 and 2020 while Bristol won only 6 games, going 6-42. Bristol went 0-12 to end August and went 2-17 in the month as a whole.

In the best of 5 cup play-in round, Cape Cod swept Salisbury while New York and Richmond went to 5 games, with New York taking games four and five to beat Richmond in the playoffs for a third consecutive year. However the league got a new champion as Cape Cod beat New York in 5. Taylor DeVos won series MVP for her 7-for-19, 3 home run performance across the five matches.

Another batting benchmark was set by Cherry Zeck of the Valkyries as she hit .433 in 46 games. Once again, two women split the home run title with 17 home runs, marking the third year that that was the highest total. Taylor DeVos and Denise Marechal shared the title after excellent seasons for the both of them (and WBLA Cup MVP for DeVos). New York’s Tash Cole and Salisbury’s Antonia Peres lead the league in RBIs with 52 apiece. The major pitching honours were split across three players as Andrea Maas took the ERA crown with 1.19, Maya Black had the most wins with 8 and Jack Head was the fastest route to the dugout with 87 Ks.
Victoria Rubio was the season’s Rookie of the Year. While drafted in 2020, she met the Rookie status requirements in 2021, hitting .337 and recording and OPS of .856. She achieved this despite only starting in 22 of her 41 games during the season. Andrea Maas, the woman who threw the first pitch in league history, won Pitcher of the Year with a 5-2 record, 1.19 ERA and 67 Ks. There was a new MVP as 41-year-old Cherry Zeck took the league’s top honour. She hit .433 as she dominated most base-related statistical categories.

With the league still doing well, another two rounds of expansion were planned. 2025 would see teams in Roanoke, VA; Huntington, WV; Asheville, TN and Hamilton, OH. 2029 would see two teams join the league, with offers from locations in America and Canada being accepted by the league [Reader proposals welcome]. Each round of expansions would add another 24 games to the season schedule.

Starting in 2022, the season would be lengthened to 72 games, in line with the postponed schedule expansion from the Bristol/Charlotte expansion.