FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A few yards from where the Boston Red Sox prepared for a spring training game Thursday, women’s baseball players took the field for a different kind of exhibition \u2014 one for a league just taking shape.<\/p>\n
The Women’s Pro Baseball League<\/a> was in Fort Myers for a two-day event hosted by the Red Sox and held an intrasquad scrimmage Thursday, marking its first chance since last summer’s open tryouts<\/a> to bring players together and continue shaping the league’s on-field product ahead of the start of its inaugural season on Aug. 1.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n A handful of players from the league’s four teams \u2014 Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York \u2014 played a seven-inning game similar to those that will take place during the WPBL’s eight-week season this summer at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. Afterward, the league held a fan fest just before the Red Sox faced the Minnesota Twins, giving a chance for curious baseball fans to get a peek at what the upstart league will offer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re fairly new (fans),” said Deb Stevens, standing next to her friend Linda Turner as they waited to get a baseball signed by players. \u201cWe’re so excited and happy. It takes a long time for them to get to this point. But they’re going to kick butt. That’s what I hope they do.\u201d<\/p>\n At a workout Wednesday, WPBL players spoke of their dreams finally becoming reality<\/a> in the WPBL, which will offer the first professional baseball league for women in the U.S. in more than 70 years.<\/p>\n But Thursday’s game wasn’t only symbolic. Players flashed speed on the bases, made hard contact at the plate and showed pitching range that pointed to the high-level product the league is aiming for.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cThe visibility of it is going to be really new,\u201d said Bree Nasti, a development coach in the New York Mets organization and WPBL coach. \u201cHopefully that\u2019s just exciting for people to say, \u2018Oh, this is what it looks like.\u2019 I think you\u2019re going to have a lot of preconceived notions. I think a lot of people are going to think that it\u2019s going to be a lower level than it is, because that\u2019s what people think about women\u2019s sports before they see them.”<\/p>\n Nasti praised the pitching and offense \u2014 like New York catcher Alyssa Zettlemoyer’s bases-clearing double down the left-field line \u2014 but said players were at times out of position, a sign that they still need to build chemistry.<\/p>\n She hopes that new audiences leave the ballpark impressed at the level of play.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what that crowd\u2019s going to be like,\u201d Nasti said. \u201cWe don\u2019t. But I do think we\u2019re in a really exciting period in women\u2019s sports where we are seeing in real time how we fill stadiums and how passionate people are about watching women compete at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n James Ciamarro, from Montreal, was impressed with the pitching from Japanese veteran Ayami Sato and other standouts like Jaida Lee and Alli Schroder.<\/p>\n