We're Jess Vernon and Laura Hirai, and we need your support to play for Great Britain!
We've been selected for the second time to represent Great Britain at the Women's European Baseball Championships in the Czech Republic in August. Our first time was with the inaugural squad back in 2022.
We have put in a lot of time, hard work and passion to achieve the goal of representing our country, and we’re determined to win gold.
As with many amateur sports, we rely on self-funding to make participation in international competition possible.
We have dedicated many hours to growing the women’s baseball game in the UK, and we love doing it! Being a part of the national team is a vital step in the development pathway to women’s baseball.
Here are a few other highlights of what we have been up to over the years to create more opportunities for the women’s baseball community in the UK:
- We both volunteer on the staff of the U12 Great Britain Baseball Team. We most recently won silver and qualification to the A Pool.
- We have carried out annual pitching lessons for the South West and Wales Baseball League’s women’s baseball community over the last two years.
- We volunteered our time to coach baseball at Greenwich Baseball’s Women and Girls Baseball Festival which welcomed over 20 female players.
- We hosted the Girls and Women’s Baseball with MLB in 2024.
- Jess founded Belles Baseball in 2021, a team competing in the Women’s Baseball League.
- Laura created the Harriers at Herts Baseball, the only women’s majority team in the British Baseball Federations’s senior leagues.
- Laura hosted the first women’s baseball game in 2017! Which Jess participated in.
What We Need:
As self-funded athletes, the responsibility is on us to cover travel, accommodation, training camps, transportation, food and equipment ourselves.
We’re working hard to cover as much as possible on our own, but we’re reaching out to family, friends and the wider community for support.
Representing GB on the international stage is a huge honour, and with your help, we can represent our country at our best potential and continue to bring awareness to women’s sport.