EXETER’S only Baseball team – the Exeter Spitfires – is celebrating after topping the table in the Westcountry Baseball League.
The Spitfires, which is supported by Exeter City Council, only lost two of its 15 matches this season, finishing above teams from Plymouth, Truro, Newton Abbot, Wellington, and Yeovil.
Spitfires will now go into an end-of-season play-off – US style – at Kingskerswell Cricket Club on August 31 and September 1 – against the other three top-four placed clubs.
The club, which was formed in 2000, trains at the King George V Playing Fields during the summer and is looking to move to Bromham’s Farm Fields in 2026, where a new baseball pitch is currently being built alongside some quality surface football pitches.
A triumphant Matthew Cousins, of the Exeter Spitfires, said: “To have somewhere to play, train, store and meet up was vital for winning the league, and allows us to grow as a club.”
Cllr Duncan Wood, Lead Councillor for Leisure Services and Healthy Living, said he was delighted with the club’s achievements. “Topping the league is a triumph in itself and just goes to show how far the club has come in a relatively short period of time.”
“I hope their achievements can act as an inspiration for baseball players of the future,” he added.
Earlier this summer more than 150 female players turned up for an initiative to get more women and girls playing baseball in Exeter.
Exeter Spitfires said they were thrilled with the response to the event, with more than 50 women and girls trying the sport for the first time.
The Club has received grants from the City Council and gets some of its funding from ticket sales from the Exeter Community Lottery.
To find out more about Exeter Spitfires visit the website at: https://exeterspitfires.wixsite.com/home .