USA women's baseball team wants to 'rule the entire world'

THUNDER BAY, Ontario -- Playing in their first tournament since winning gold at the Pan-American Championships in 2019, Team USA was brought together by one phrase. It's written on the lineup card that hangs in the dugout; its abbreviation is used as a hashtag on social media and it's even stitched into the players' belts: "Rule the entire f-ing world," or its parent-approved acronym, #RTEFW.

That phrase seemed to work well on Tuesday when the U.S. defeated Australia, 3-2, in its first game of the tournament. The game was started by one of the youngest players -- 18-year-old right-hander Elise Berger (5 2/3 IP, 2 R) -- and it was closed out by the only player left over from the 2006 World Cup-winning squad, Meggie Meidlinger. Known as one of the nicest people off the mound and one of the most competitive on it, she seems to take the motto to heart.

"I build up an alter ego in the bullpen and you have to have that mindset that, 'I'm winning this. Like, this is my job, I'm winning it, nothing's getting past me, and no one can touch me,'" Meidlinger said. "I'm coming in and doing my job and shutting it [down]."

"We've been on a mission since 2018 to kind of turn things around," U.S. manager Veronica Alvarez told MLB.com before the start of the Women's Baseball World Cup this week. Team USA finished fourth in the last World Cup -- a medal-less position that doesn't fly with anyone on the roster or coaching staff.

"We didn't have a favorable outcome in 2018," Alvarez said. "So our mission has been to prove that we're the best team in the world. All the work that we've done in these last few years has been for that. We're on this mission and this is the first time we get to compete [in a World Cup] since 2018, so we're gonna have fun showcasing all the things that we've learned in the way we challenged ourselves in the last five years."

Second baseman Alex Hugo, the MVP of the 2019 Pan-American Championships and who made an over-the-head catch in shallow center to end the game on Tuesday, put it simply:

"I am the mindset of 'No friends,'" Hugo said. "We are here for us. This is a business trip. We're not friends with anybody -- we'll be polite, we'll be respectful sportsmen, but we are not friends because we are here to dominate."

While Alvarez came up with the core of the team's motto, it's her wife who added that unprintable emphasis which has given the phrase a little extra oomph.

"We gotta give her credit. She keeps asking me if I gave her credit," Alvarez joked. "[The team] rolled with it and it's really brought a lot of passion and this fight for our players."

Those players feature both team veterans like Meidlinger and first baseman/catcher Anna Kimbrell, along with new young stars like Berger, Brown University's Olivia Pichardo -- the first woman to play Division I baseball -- and 16-year-old pitcher and infielder Naomi Reyes. Despite the wide range in ages and life experiences, the desire to compete and dominate on the world's stage unites them all.

"We're not just here individually, but we're here as a team," star center fielder Kelsie Whitmore, a trailblazer who also plays for the Staten Island FerryHawks, said. "We're here to play as a unit. And it's us against the world, that's really what it means. We're here to play for each other, for our country, and for our family."

Of course, there's one thing that the veteran players may not get with their younger teammates:

"The only difference would probably be relating to what they are into, like TikTok and stuff," Alex Hugo joked. "I don't really get that. But I think we have a good structure and everyone pulls each other in. So it's really cool."

The players see how the game of women's baseball has changed even in just the last few years, providing these younger stars with better opportunities than perhaps the veterans ever had. Alongside players like Whitmore and Pichardo and Ashton Lansdell -- who was the first woman to play for a junior college before transferring to FIU to play softball -- there are more women on Major and Minor League coaching staffs than ever before. That extends to the USWNT roster, with Sarah Edwards and Elizabeth Greenwood working in the Phillies system, while Jade Gortarez works for the Dodgers.

"Women's baseball has grown so much," Whitmore said. "I remember less than five years ago, there were no opportunities -- even playing college baseball -- and now you've got girls that are getting the opportunity. When you don't see that, and then all sudden you see the change, that's when you know that growth is starting to happen."

All those thoughts are secondary to the USA's goal this week, though. They want to stay in the present, take solid at-bats and rack up an awful lot of wins.

"I'm just here to enjoy every moment, be present -- my mom always says be present where your feet are -- and that's just what I want to do: Soak in every moment," Lansdell said. "I want to rule the world one step at a time and just have fun, play the game that I love and show that we're the best to do this damn thing."