[Litty]

2029

Breanna went to Beaver and Olivia went to Roanoke as picks 1 and 2. They were widely expected to feature opening day. 2028 no. 1 pick, Ronda Olague, was drafted 5th overall by Asheville after failing to sign with Roanoke the previous season. She returned to Texas and pursued a 1 year Masters course in land management studies.

The season ran unamended as the commissioner’s office wanted practical evidence as to whether changes such as a longer season and expanded playoffs were needed.

At the All Star break, Cape Cod lead the North at 31-15 with New York (30-15) holding the second wildcard spot. Richmond was having a slightly cooler season than 2028 but still led the South with a record of 32-14. Charlotte held the top wildcard at 31-15. Northern expansion Regina sat at the bottom of the north at 15-31 (but were not the worst team in the WBLA- that was Asheville at 11-34). Meanwhile, Beaver sat in 4th in the south at 19-27. Breanna Dudley made the All Star game, hitting .350 in 46 games. Meanwhile Olivia, being played as a closer, was 1-1 with a 2.33 era through 18 games (19.1 innings). In the All Star Game, the South dominated as they won 10-2 with last year’s league MVP Louisa Garcia earning the All Star MVP award.

New York pulled away in the second half of the season and won the North division by 5 games as they finished 66-34. They would be the only northern representative in the postseason as Richmond went 72-28 to win the South with Charlotte and Salisbury filling the wildcards at 67-33 and 62-38 respectively.

Richmond and New York beat their opponents in 4 to face off in the WBLA Cup. Richmond’s dynasty title would have to wait as New York fought back from a 3-1 deficit to claim their first title since 2020 and the North’s first cup win since Cape Cod in 2024. The win also stopped Richmond from winning three-in-a-row.
Despite a drop in her stats, Keesha DeWilliams had the league’s average for the fifth straight season as she hit for .382. While retaining the RBI title (118), Louisa Garcia also broke out and took the home run title too, hitting 36 long balls across the season. Last year’s triple crown winner, Lenora Pena, retrained her ERA and Ks titles, pitching 1.97 and striking out 146. However, she fell three wins short of winnigest pitcher Josie Sanchez of Richmond, who went 16-3 in 21 starts (compared to Pena’s 13-1 in the same amount of starts).

To no-one’s surprise, Breanna Dudley won Rookie of the Year. She had hit .366 and 23 home runs for Beaver. Her sister had finished with a 2.30 ERA and 13 saves in 31 games for Roanoke. Pena collected her second Pitcher of the Year award, only the second player to win it more than once. Finally, Keesha DeWilliams won her second MVP award.

Edith Fitzsimmons, the long time Valkyrie who had played the 2029 season in Huntington, retired. The shortstop had played 611 games after being drafted in the first round of the inaugural draft. A four-time Cherry Zeck Award winner, Fitzsimmons hit .317 across her career and was the 2020 home run league leader. Another New York icon who retired was fan-favourite Joan Shea. On November 25th, Shea played a testimonial game at the Brooklyn Cyclones’ MCU Park. She played the first four innings as a Valkyrie and the last four as a Valiant, a homage to her constant jumping between teams. The league also said goodbye to Abigail Lawlor, one of the sportswriters who had helped start the league, after she passed away at the end of a years-long battle with cancer.

The commissioner’s office announced a number of changes for the 2030 season- the season would be extended to 120 games and the playoffs would be expanded to include six teams, regardless of division. This meant that division winners were no longer guaranteed a playoff place. The playoffs would now consist of two best of one matches (#4 @ #3, #6 @ #5) before continuing as before. The league also announced that the Pitcher of the Year award would be renamed the Madeeha Baqri Award and that the WBLA Cup would be the Abigail Lawlor Trophy. There were also plans to hold off on expansions until at least 2035.