Lisa Pride on ESPN Unlimited: How to watch San Francisco Firebells vs Boston Hunters in the WPBL
Match date:
San Francisco Firebells at Boston Hunters in the Women’s Pro Baseball League will be available on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+ and the Scripps Sports Network, with Lisa Pride on main commentary, Jenna Becerra as co-commentator and AJ Andrews reporting from the field. ESPN secured U.S. streaming rights to all WPBL games for the league’s inaugural season, making this one of the headline broadcasts of opening week.[2]
The match is listed by multiple schedule sources as a WPBL game between the Firebells and Hunters, played at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois, the neutral-site home for all four inaugural teams in the league’s first season.[1][4][14] The opening weekend in Springfield marks the long-awaited debut of the Women’s Professional Baseball League, which was founded two years ago and is launching with four franchises and a five-week, 30-game schedule.[2][4]
Lisa Pride is leading the call for a broadcast that ESPN and league coverage are treating as a major step for women’s baseball visibility. Jenna Becerra brings additional on-air analysis as co-commentator, while AJ Andrews is tasked with sideline reporting, giving the telecast a familiar modern sports-broadcast structure with play-by-play, colour commentary and live interviews from the venue.
The WPBL’s first-season format is unusual but deliberate: every game is being staged at the same Springfield ballpark to centralise operations while the league establishes itself.[2][4][14] That setup also gives American and British viewers an easy viewing proposition, since the league’s early identity is being built around a single location, a compact schedule and nationally distributed coverage through ESPN and Scripps.
The Firebells and Hunters are among the WPBL’s four inaugural clubs, joining the Los Angeles Queens and New York Heights.[4][14] The Boston and San Francisco identities were unveiled during the summer as the league moved toward launch, and the branding has been positioned as a nod to pioneering women associated with each city’s history.[4][14]
For viewers in the UK, the listed 00:30 start time means this is a late-night watch, but it is one of the most significant women’s baseball broadcasts yet scheduled for a transatlantic audience. For U.S. fans, the presence of ESPN Unlimited and ESPN+ means the game should be straightforward to find online, while the Scripps Sports Network broadens the reach for cord-cutters and linear-TV viewers.[2]
If you are tracking the league more broadly, the WPBL’s launch weekend is taking place at a venue steeped in baseball history, and the league’s early games are being framed as both a sporting milestone and a test of market appetite for professional women’s baseball.[2][4][14] More information on the league’s broader build-up can be found through the Women’s Professional Baseball League entry on Wikipedia, which provides a concise overview of the inaugural structure and teams: Women’s Pro Baseball League.
Article generated: 2 August 2026, 12:31 GMT