USWNT stars Hugo and Lansdell reflect on silver medal at Women's Baseball World Cup

Alex Hugo began every morning of the recent Women's Baseball World Cup with a patriotic quote. The U.S. Women's National team superstar and only two-time USA Baseball Sportswoman of the Year Award-winner wanted something that would set the tone for the rest of the day. This wasn't a tournament to take lightly, nor was it a vacation.

“We’re here on a business trip,” Hugo told MLB.com's Julia Kreuz during the World Cup. “We are ready to handle what we need to handle.”

This was a team who had shown up to the group stage last year with special belts that had "RTEFW" on them -- an acronym for "Rule the entire [freaking] world." The team looked dominant and desperately wanted to win its first gold medal since 2006. They even beat Japan, who hadn't lost a single game at the World Cup since 2012, in a thrilling 4-3 victory in extras that required a highlight-reel play from shortstop and firefighter Valerie Perez to keep things tied.

Unfortunately for Team USA, Japan won the rematch in the gold medal game, winning its seventh consecutive gold medal, 11-6.

"It's always a whirlwind, having five, six games, and I think all the work that you do, training on my own, doing all of that, trying to imagine myself at the World Cup, and then it's there, and then it's gone," Hugo told MLB.com when reflecting on the tournament recently. "I think the tournament was really good. I wish that we could have a season together, because that team was the strongest 20 that I think could have been put together. I think we have something special and I think that we need to channel what we have together in a way where we can execute every single game."

The loss still stings a team that had such high expectations for itself, that still wants to be the team that sets the tone for what women's baseball can look like in America.

"Any time to get with the USA women's national baseball team is easily my favorite time of the year," power-hitting third baseman Ashton Lansdell said. "It's just a family that we don't get to experience very often, since we all live all over the country, and we're just never all together. It's very rare that we can all be in one place, and when we are, it's just a special environment and just such great energy. It's the people that you can closely bond with, because you've lived a similar life of being a girl in baseball and going through all these different routes we've had to get to where we are now."

Lansdell is usually penciled in atop the lineup by manager Veronica Alvarez, with Hugo batting behind her in the No. 2 spot. The two USA Baseball teammates, who are usually the tone setters for the national team, are currently competing against each other in HRDX. They will face off in Albuquerque on Friday night before taking the stage again next week in Nashville.

The two realize how much the sport has grown in America over the last decade, with multiple players like Olivia Pichardo and Elise Berger playing college baseball, while teenager Naomi Ryan bats in the middle of the order while working under the tutelage of Billy Wagner.

"I think the accessibility to the MLB Develops camps are huge for the pipeline of who is going to be at tryouts, or who is being viewed as the next kid [to make the leap]," Hugo said. "We have a lot of young kids, and I think that's also very strong, because they're playing baseball on their own. Some of them are going to college for baseball. Some of them play softball, but then still play baseball. It's like the world is expanding, and I think that talent is also rising with it."

17-year-old Sophia Broderick was the only new player to break into the squad, while 20-year-old Remi Schaber took the next step in her development.

"She freaking killed it," Hugo said about Schaber. "She has gotten so much more vocal, and really started coming out of her shell. I am so excited for her, because she has the talent. She has the drive. And I think that, as an athlete, if you can find your voice within your sport, it's a game changer. She's only going to continue to get better."

Seeing Japan win another gold medal reveals the hurdle that Team USA must still scale. The two teams may be very similar on the field, but Japan has over 100 women's baseball teams across the country with more than 50 women's high school baseball programs alone.

"Obviously they're the masters of small ball," Lansdell said, noting the three consecutive run-scoring safety squeeze bunts Japan laid down in the gold medal game. "They're really good at being able to place the ball, too. They're not trying to hit the ball over the fence. They're literally trying to just put a barrel on it and place it where it needs to go. They also do very good at scouting. They were literally video taping every step we took. I feel like they had on camera every tendency we have, especially in the box with our hitters. They studied us, and by the time the gold medal game came around, they knew exactly how to pitch us."

While America tries to keep pace with Japan, the women's game is also improving across the world -- something easily visible from the overall level of play as well as emerging rivalries. There's certainly no love lost between Canada and the United States once they step between the white lines -- something that wasn't helped by the United States' 23-0 victory at the group stage last year.

"I really think Canada gets us the most going for whatever reason," Lansdell said. "Definitely, the rivalries have grown in the past few years, for sure, but in a good way. On the field, we're going after each other's throats, and we're trying to win. But then, once the game is over and we're outside of lines, we're taking pictures and giving each other hugs and stuff."

"Even in the SEC, you have those schools that just irk you," Hugo, a standout at the University of Georgia, said. "That make you go just a little bit [more]. And again, it's not that deep, but I feel because I'm a very patriotic person, when it comes to a baseball game, it's me or you, and I'm gonna choose me and I'm gonna choose my team. I don't want to play nice."

With the tournament now over, there's no set date for when the national team will get together again. Lansdell will soon begin playing for the Ole Miss softball team after transferring from FIU, while Hugo will return to her duties with the A's once the HRDX season ends.

But when the USA women's national team does get together, there will be one goal: Win or go home.

"It's super hard, because you don't get to see them all together all the time," Hugo said. "You get to see parts of them. You get to talk to them on GroupMe or Instagram or whatever. But every time that we're together, it's as if we are in just one big, long season. It just keeps rolling. People keep getting better. People keep getting closer. It's this little USA baseball family world that I go to and I love it. It's like a high, and then once it's over, you plummet, because you just want to keep going and going."