*** Reports courtesy of the Women’s Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC)

Team USA stormed back from an early two-run deficit to defeat Japan, 7-2, and secure its 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 offense in the finale of the WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup Finals 2025.

In the circle, Caroline Stanton shut the door with three scoreless innings in relief.

After falling behind 2-0, the Americans 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 the U-18 World Cup and currently boasts 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,” said head coach Kyla Holas.

“Whenever you put those letters [USA] on, your job is to uphold that tradition. 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.”

🇺🇸🥇 USA takes the gold!
WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup Finals 2025#SoftballWorldCupWU18 pic.twitter.com/qJr82RyRfZ

— WBSC ⚾🥎 (@WBSC) October 1, 2025

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, Team USA has now claimed seven victories against their biggest rivals.

“I think it’s so exciting,” said pitcher Caroline Stanton, who came in relief and pitched four scoreless innings with five strikeouts.

“It’s something that you dream of as a younger kid. It’s such a crazy feeling right now, I’m so happy!”

The Americans remains 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 celebrated its 14th podium finish; the only edition they missed was 2021 due to the pandemic.

“The biggest thing that we wanted first was to get through 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 pitcher Shion Yamamoto, however, came through in the clutch by striking out 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 capitalized 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.

🇺🇸💪 Payton Westra gets it into GEAR with a 3 RBI double!
WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup Finals 2025#SoftballWorldCupWU18 pic.twitter.com/XLdLka54xD

— WBSC ⚾🥎 (@WBSC) October 1, 2025

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 shut the door allowing no runs through the rest of the game.

“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,” added Stanton.

“It’s effective when my teammates always have my back, no matter what.”

Coach Holas said she was pleased with her pitchers’ performances.

“I thought actually both of them threw well today,” she said.

“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 force themselves to get out,” Stanton added. 

USA added one in the following inning, on a wild pitch, with McLaine Hudson–one of three Americans who made the All-World Team– scoring from third on a very close play.

The final three runs of the tournament came with a bases clearing double by Westra in the bottom of the sixth.

Catcher Juliana “Goose” Hutchens was named the MVP of the World Cup, capping off a dominant tournament at the plate.

The announcement came during the closing ceremony in Oklahoma City, where the full list of individual awards and the All-World Team were revealed.

Hutchens was the offensive standout of the event, leading all players in batting average (.800), RBIs (8) and home runs (2) across six games.

“It feels great,” Hutchens said.

“I had a lot of confidence going into the tournament. We have a great team–I’ve got a great team behind me—so you can go out there and play with all the confidence in the world. I honestly don’t look at the numbers at all, but it’s just an honor to be able to play and then to put up those numbers.”

Japan’s Shion Yamamoto also had a remarkable tournament, claiming two pitching awards.

The 15-year-old right-hander led the competition in ERA (0.44) and wins (3).

Her teammate Mayuha Ishikawa topped the leaderboard in stolen bases (5), while USA outfielder Aspen Boulware crossed the plate more than anyone else, scoring nine runs.

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2025 U-18 Women’s National Team (Players & Coaches)

PLAYERS

COACHES