USA crowned 2025 U-18 Women’s Softball World Champions
01/10/2025 4 Minute Read

USA crowned 2025 U-18 Women’s Softball World Champions

USA defeated Japan, 7-2, to win their fifth consecutive U-18 Women's Softball World Title

USA stormed back from an early two-run deficit to defeat Japan, 7-2, and secure their fifth consecutive WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Championship title. Payton Westra drove in three runs, while Aspen Boulware went 2-for-3 to fuel the offence in the final of the WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup Finals 2025. In the circle, Caroline Stanton shut the door with four scoreless innings in relief. After falling behind 2-0, USA replied with seven unanswered runs to clinch the crown on home soil in Oklahoma City.

World No. 2 USA secured a record-setting fifth consecutive world championship in this category, and the ninth overall. They currently boast a 48-game winning streak, having gone undefeated to claim the last four world titles. “I think that’s just the tradition every athlete before has established. Whenever you put those letters [USA] on, your job is to uphold that tradition," said head coach Kyla Holas. "Every athlete that came before us put that pressure on this team, and we embrace it - because that’s what we expect from USA when you put those letters on.”

This final marked the 12th time world No. 1 Japan and USA faced each other for the title in the WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup. With this victory, USA have now claimed seven victories against their biggest rivals.

"I think it's so exciting. It's something that you dream of as a younger kid," said pitcher Caroline Stanton, who came in relief and pitched four scoreless innings with five strikeouts. "It's such a crazy feeling right now, I'm so happy."

USA remain the only nation to reach the podium in every edition of the WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup, with 15 medals to their name - nine gold, five silver, and one bronze. Japan will also be celebrating their 14th podium finish; the only edition they missed was 2021.

"The biggest thing that we wanted first was to get the first inning with no runs, because Japan had scored in every game, so that was something that we felt like it was a big momentum for us," said Holas. "Second was just anything that they did, we answered right back and I thought our team did both of those things that we executed." 

In the bottom of the first, USA loaded the bases without a hit, drawing a walk and hitting two batters. Japan’s Shion Yamamoto came through in the clutch, striking out Payton Westra and inducing a grounder to second to end the threat.

Mayumi Fujiwara opened the third inning with a rocket triple to the right-field wall, followed by a perfectly executed bunt single from Aisa Noda to put two runners on with no outs. Both runners came home on a bloop single down the right-field line by Mayuha Ishikawa, giving Japan a 2-0 lead over USA.

"In that moment, our biggest thing was just answering back, you know, keep doing what we had been trying to do offensively," explained Holas. "We had had runners on and we were just needing to finish what we were trying to do. So our team responded exactly how we wanted them to." 

In the bottom of the third, USA capitalised on a costly error by Japan’s first baseman Erin Sato to grab a 3-2 advantage. With runners on second and third and two outs, Ki’ele Ho Ching grounded to Sato, who stepped on the orange bag, allowing the runner from third to score and leaving the inning alive. Addyson Sheppard followed with a single to drive in two more, giving USA their first lead of the game.

Lefty Lillian Goodwin started for USA, pitching three innings while giving up two runs on four hits. In the top of the fourth Stanton came in in relief and she shut the door. “This whole week we’ve had each other’s backs, and in a situation like that, coming in and having my teammates’ back is kind of easy - it’s effective when my teammates always have my back, no matter what,” added Stanton.

"I thought actually both of them threw well today," analysed coach Holas. "We knew what we wanted to bring today to them, and had them make some adjustments, because Japan's great in doing that. And so we wanted to be able to bring some different looks to them. And I thought both our pitchers did their job today."

"My plan was obviously attack them, throw the ball hard inside, and, like, force themselves to get out," said Stanton. 

USA added one in the following inning, on a wild pitch, with McLaine Hudson scoring from third on a very close play. The final three runs of the tournament came with a bases clearing double by Payton Westra in the bottom of the sixth.

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