Ipswich librarian selected for Team GB baseball World Cup
A University of Suffolk librarian will fly to Taiwan next month to play for Team GB in the Women's Baseball World Cup qualifiers. This comes a year after helping the team win its first ever European Championship gold.
Why it matters: Oona Ylinen, a Learning and Teaching Librarian at the University of Suffolk, will be part of the squad's first ever appearance at the World Cup qualifiers.
The details: Over five days in August, the squad will face Venezuela, Japan, Cuba, the Philippines and Chinese Taipei.
Oona, originally from Finland, has been part of the national squad since its beginnings five years ago. She plays for Essex Archers in Division Three at club level.
Oona was officially confirmed for the summer squad following an invitational tournament at the start of June. The qualifiers feature two pools of six teams, with the top three from each pool progressing to the finals in 2027.
What they're saying: Oona said: "Getting to represent the country, wear the flag, do something really cool and that none of us has ever done before – we have never sent a team to the world cup – so getting to do that is really scary and really exciting,"
"We have really no idea what to expect, considering the team started five years ago and we are now building to our first world cup is tremendous, but ultimately we want to play the best baseball that we can.
"It's one of those things that you think it isn't going to happen. It's such an honour really."
For context: The 30-year-old played a key role in the squad's gold medal win at last summer's European Championship, taking to the pitching mound in the final against the Czech side.
"There is a real community spirit within the sport, and I think that is something I have really gravitated to and that's why I've ended up sticking around for nearly 11 years," Oona said.
Her introduction to the sport was accidental. "I had a half-American housemate who was actually from Ipswich while I was at uni at UEA, and that's where I started playing," she said. "He wanted somebody to go with, so I went thinking I would only go for a couple of weeks. I turned up and had a really great time with it, and the rest is history."
The bottom line: From a chance visit to a baseball club nearly 11 years ago to Team GB's first ever World Cup qualifiers, Oona's journey mirrors the historic step the whole squad is about to take together.
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