In September, women's fastpitch final series were played in Sweden. After a three-year long pause, Skövde Saints seized the national championship again.

Skövde Saints won the semifinal series against Söder Softball (Stockholm). Semifinal is played for the best out of 3 games and Skövde advanced to the final with scores 8-2, 3-16 and 9-7. Leksand Lumberjacks, who came in second place in 2014, defeated Enköping Softball 2 – 1 (best of 3) with the scores 1-3, 10-2 and 11-1. Skövde Saints had a winning streak of 7 Swedish Championships from 2006 to 2012.  Last time they played the final was in 2013, when they lost to Leksand.  

The finals were played on 5th and 12th of September. Both teams were determined to win the trophy as they started the final series in Leksand where the first game was won by Skövde  11-1 and the second game won by Leksand 2-0.  The following weekend Skövde had the home-field advantage and in the third game they won 17-15.  The fourth game in the best-of-five final series was scoreless until the 6th inning, when the Lumberjacks scored a go-ahead run. However, the Saints came back and tied the game in the 7th, so both teams headed into a tie-breaking 8th inning. While Leksand didn’t score, the Saints did and after 3 years of draught, the golden trophy is now back in Skövde.  

Lina Larsson, Skövde, was the final-series MVP - batting 3 for 6, scoring 4 runs and knocking in 3 important RBI's in the two last games, as werll as a couple of spectacular and significant defensive plays, earned her the honor.

The Swedish finals are played in the best out of five system and foreign pitchers may be used in games 1 and 5 (Only Skövde took advantage of this rule). The top 4 teams played very tight and, most of the season, good games of softball. The future for Swedish softball is looking brighter than ever with more young players entering the game.

-Jenny Wonish, HNov-