Since its revival in 2017, Oxford University Baseball and Softball Club has grown into a group of diverse baseball and softball enthusiasts who love playing and appreciating the game and are passionate about growing the popularity of the sports throughout the United Kingdom, especially among students at Oxford University.
The first baseball Varsity Match between Oxford and Cambridge was played in the spring of 1999, and Oxford came out on top 11-8. However, after the graduation of many core players two years later, that Oxford team, the Kings, ceased to represent the University and joined the fledgling British Baseball Federation league. The Kings were crowned National Champions in 2010 and currently compete in the AA division, the third tier of British baseball.
Numerous attempts were made to revive the club after 2001, but it was not until 2017 that Jae Young Park of Somerville College successfully restarted the club. Renamed the Oxford Rangers, the club played its first competitive games at the 2017 Spring National University Baseball Championships (NUBC). The next academic year, the Rangers achieved their first wins at the pre-season Autumn NUBC and won the Southwest Division of the British University Baseball League (BUBL) in their first year. This year also saw the revival of the Varsity Match, and at Coldham's Common in Cambridge, 2018 Varsity ended with Cambridge as 14-10 winners, leveling the series at 2-2.
The 2018-19 season saw Oxford notch second-place finishes at the Autumn and Spring NUBCs and repeat as Southwest Division champions, going undefeated in BUBL play. An 8-1 win in the first home Varsity since 2000 capped a season of improvement for the club. Then the Rangers started 2019-20 strong by finally breaking through against Loughborough in the Autumn NUBC, claiming their first national championship with a 7-5 victory. They went on to finish 19-0 on the season, topping their BUBL division and defeating Cambridge 15-10 for a second straight Varsity win. This win was particularly memorable because of baseball’s newly secured status as a Half Blue sport at Oxford, a testament to the hard work of A.J. Callis, the club’s captain.
Despite the cancellation of the rest of the 2020-21 season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Varsity Match was still played. In what would be Oxford’s only game of the season, Ryan Doyle tossed a no-hitter in a 20-0 victory. In the following year, baseball became part of BUCS, the UK’s governing body for university-level sport, and in this new league format Oxford has finished second in the South Eastern division in both 2021-22 and 2022-23, qualifying for the national championship, at which they finished fifth in 2022 and fourth in 2023. Varsity wins (15-12 in 2022 and 18-12 in 2023) have given Oxford a five-year win streak against their Cambridge rivals.
