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Olivia Pichardo is the first woman to make the roster of Division I baseball team

February 7, 2023 by Tara S

Laurel Wamsley, Jonathan Franklin | NPR

When Brown University’s baseball season starts in February, one of the players taking the field will make history. Olivia Pichardo, a first-year student from Queens, N.Y., will be first woman on the roster of a Division I college baseball team in the U.S.

“It’s kind of crazy to know that I’m living out my dream right now and my ideal college experience that I’ve always wanted, so that’s really cool,” Pichardo said in a media release. She said being named to the team is surreal, as it has been her goal since eighth grade to continue playing baseball in college.

Pichardo walked on to Brown’s team following tryouts and a grueling assessment process – during which she immediately impressed the head coach, demonstrating her abilities as an infielder, outfielder and pitcher.

“It’s a workout common for baseball and allows us to evaluate athleticism and arm strength, as well as both offensive and defensive skills,” said Brown baseball head coach Grant Achilles. “Olivia put together the most complete walk-on tryout I have seen from a player since becoming a head coach.”

The first of many successes on the ballfield for women

Making the cut is just the latest achievement on the ballfield for Pichardo. This year, the 18-year-old was named to the roster of the USA Baseball Women’s National Team as a right-handed pitcher and outfielder.

Pichardo will be a utility player for Brown, able to play in both infield and outfield positions.

Brown University Athletics

Women have been making strides onto the rosters of baseball teams in recent years. In May, Kelsie Whitmore became the first woman to start in a game in pro baseball’s Atlantic League, taking left field for the Staten Island FerryHawks.

Baseball For All, an organization that advocates for girls and women in baseball, keeps a list of colleges and universities that will consider talented players, regardless of gender. There are 8 women (including Pichardo) who are rostered to play varsity college baseball in the spring of 2023, according to the organization.

Pichardo says her teammates have been welcoming, and cheered when she was named to the roster.

Brown University Athletics

Baseball has always been her sport of choice, despite critics’ opinions

Pichardo will be a utility player in both the infield and outfield when the college season starts. She says when Achilles announced during an October team meeting that she had made the cut, her new teammates broke out into applause.

“I did not expect that at all — that definitely took me by surprise,” Pichardo said. “Everyone was super happy about it.”

But in an interview with Morning Edition, Pichardo tells NPR’s A Martinez that throughout her baseball career, there have been countless times where many tried to discourage her away from the sport.

“Throughout all of my baseball career, every time I progress to the next level, more and more people would ask me about maybe switching to softball,” Pichardo said.

“There’s no shade towards softball, but it’s just that I’ve never played softball before,” she added.

Nevertheless, with any luck, she’ll be far from the last woman to play college baseball at the highest level.

“I’m just really glad that we’re having more and more female baseball players at the collegiate level, and no matter what division, it’s just really good to see this progression,” Pichardo said. “It’s really paving the way for other girls in the next generation to also have these goals that they want to achieve and dream big and know that they can do it.”

Filed Under: AOTM, Athlete Spotlight, baseball, Women in Sports Tagged With: Olivia Pichardo

Meet Olivia Pichardo, the First Woman in Division 1 Baseball: ‘Inspiring Girls Is My Biggest Motivator’

February 7, 2023 by Tara S

By Natasha Dye | People

In November, Olivia Pichardo’s dreams came true. After weeks of tryouts — preceded by years of practices and games and time spent throwing a ball with her dad — the 18-year-old athlete earned a spot on Brown University’s baseball team, making her the first woman to play for a Division 1 varsity college baseball team.

On the last day of tryouts, Pichardo sat among rows of male hopefuls in an auditorium at Brown, eager to learn if she made the cut.

That’s when Head Coach Grant Achilles delivered the best news of her life: “Olivia, thanks for joining us for the Fall and officially for the Spring.”

Everyone clapped for Pichardo, a pitcher, as she lit up with a smile, displaying the “quiet confidence” — as her mother Maximo calls it — that wowed Bears leadership. “I’ve always set a standard to perform at a certain level for every single game,” says Pichardo. “Throughout my life, I’ve had pretty high expectations for myself.”

It’s a drive that began developing at the age of 6, when Pichardo made her Little League debut in her hometown of Queens, New York.

Olivia Pichardo rollout
COURTESY

But in those early days, baseball was just an excuse to have a good time with her father Max, who volunteered to be a coach on all her teams. “He grew up playing baseball in the Dominican Republic,” she says. “He helped me develop a love for the game rather than developing all of the technical skills, because at that age it’s mostly about having fun.”

Pichardo says the fun of baseball temporarily faded at the age of 14, when she started “getting insecure about being a girl playing baseball,” while others switched to softball.

Participating in baseball camps sponsored by MLB and USA Baseball helped her overcome the discomfort. “That was a big motivator for me to keep going,” she says, “and not really care about what other people might have to say about me.”

After finding success at the MLB Breakthrough Series and an MLB Grit event, she made the USA Baseball Women’s National Team at just 18, playing as a right-handed pitcher and outfielder last summer.

Hustling on the global stage made her even more determined to find a university where she could continue pursuing her passion. “I knew that I wanted and could play college baseball,” she says, “but the problem was finding the right school that fit me academically and where I would join the baseball team.”

Olivia Pichardo rollout
BROWN ATHLETICS

The perfect place turned out to be Brown, the Providence, R.I. Ivy League university where she became just one of the 5.5% of applicants to be accepted into the class of 2026, partly thanks to her impressive 5.2 GPA.

Receiving her acceptance letter was “a happy moment” for Pichardo, who says Brown was her mother’s top choice. “She cried when I got in, which made me uncomfortable,” she says, laughing.

As Pichardo began her studies last semester, she signed up to try out for the baseball team as a walk-on. Heading into the audition, she was confident in her ability to stand out. “I’ve always been able to not only just keep up,” she says, “but also excel.” Now she feels like just another one of the Bears. “My teammates treat me like they would each other, which I appreciate,” she says. “It’s all I could ask for.”

Currently, she’s leaning towards a major in business economics “because it’s a versatile degree” that will give her options if she doesn’t go pro. “I’m thinking about maybe pursuing an MLB front-office job one day,” says Pichardo, who became fascinated with the “behind-the-scenes” of baseball as an intern with the New York Mets last Spring.

Olivia Pichardo rollout
BROWN ATHLETICS

But for now Pichardo is focused on the upcoming season, kicking off Feb. 24. against the Memphis Tigers.

Her preparation has included reading Training Camp by Jon Gordon, a mandatory assignment for the Bears that encourages baseballers to find “something outside of yourself to play for,” she says.

When Pichardo hits the field, she’ll play for the next generation of female baseball players. “When I was little, I didn’t know there were other girls playing baseball,” she says. “Inspiring girls is my biggest motivator.”

Filed Under: AOTM, Athlete Spotlight, baseball, Women in Sports Tagged With: Olivia Pichardo

Giants’ Alyssa Nakken becomes first woman to coach on field in regular-season MLB game

April 14, 2022 by Tara S

Alyssa-Nakken-Coach

Nakken stepped in for the ejected first-base coach Tuesday vs. Padres

by: Dayn Perry | CBS Sports

In the third inning of Tuesday night’s game between the Padres and Giants (SD-SF GameTracker), San Francisco’s Alyssa Nakken made MLB history when she stepped in to the fill the role of first-base coach.

Richardson was ejected in the top of the third by first-base umpire Greg Gibson while apparently instructing the defense. As for Nakken, here she is fulfilling some of the usual duties of the first-base coach.

Nakken, 31, has been a part of the Giants organization since 2014, when she started as an intern in baseball operations. She now serves as a major league assistant coach on manager Gabe Kapler’s staff. In the past, she’s worked on outfield and base-running instruction, and in January of 2020, she became the first woman to hold a full-time coaching position in MLB. 

“I feel it’s my job to honor those who have helped me get to where I am,” she told MLB.com not long after ascending to that position. “Coaching, I never saw it. This job has kind of been hidden for so long. I’m so excited to be in this role for the challenge and the opportunity to make an impact for this organization that I love. But also, I’m excited that now girls can see there is a job on the field in baseball. It’s really cool.”

Nakken previously coached first base during a “summer camp” exhibition game in July of 2020, but Tuesday marked the first time a woman has coached on the field in a regular-season game. 

Filed Under: baseball, Women in Sports

Yankees’ Rachel Balkovec Makes History as the First Female Manager in Minor League Baseball

January 11, 2022 by Tara S

Rachel Balkovec Baseball Coach

By: Morgan Smith | CNBC

Rachel Balkovec will become the first female manager in affiliated professional baseball after the Yankees tapped her to lead the Tampa Tarpons, their Low-A affiliate team, according to the Athletic. 

This isn’t the first glass ceiling the 34-year-old has shattered in baseball, either. The Omaha native has been a professional baseball coach for 10 years and has often been the first woman to hold different jobs within the sport. 

The announcement comes after a series of other firsts for women in baseball over the last two years. Last year Bianca Smith made history as the first Black woman to coach in professional baseball after joining the Boston Red Sox staff and in 2020, Kim Ng became first female general manager of the MLB for the Miami Dolphins. 

Balkovec started her career in 2012 as a strength and conditioning coach for the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league team. She left in 2015 to be the Houston Astros’ Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator, making her the first woman to hold that position.

She took a few years off from American professional baseball to complete a master’s degree in biomechanics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands and was hired by the Yankees shortly after graduating in 2019 as a minor-league hitting coach, becoming the first female full-time hitting coach in an MLB organization. 

Her interest in biomechanics has helped Balkovec better understand how to use science to improve players’ swings and movements. “For example, if there is a restriction in movement, can they spot those types of things,″ Balkovec said in 2019, according to the New York Post. 

She continued: “How is that going to affect their swing mechanics and the ability to get something done in a game situation? Also, the visual side of things, what are the best strategies of things [like] picking up the ball for recognizing a pitch?”

Balkovec, who was a catcher for the softball teams at Creighton University and the University of New Mexico, has called the challenges she has faced while working in a male-dominated sport “an advantage.” 

“I had to do probably much more than maybe a male counterpart, but I like that because I’m so much more prepared for the challenges that I might encounter,” she told the Associated Press in 2019. 

It’s also important, Balkovec added, to be persistent and not lose hope in the face of unequal opportunities. 

“My mom always used to say, life’s not fair,” she told the Associated Press. “So is it fair? No. Does it matter? No. You have to keep standing at that door banging on it.”

Filed Under: baseball, Women in Sports

Ella Bruning: Five things to know about the Little League World Series breakout star

August 26, 2021 by Tara S

Ella Bruning

BY CHUCK SCHILKEN | LA Times

Ella Bruning is making history at the Little League World Series.

The 12-year-old catcher for the Wylie Little League team from Abilene, Texas, is the 20th girl to take part in the annual event in South Williamsport, Pa., and the only girl in this year’s tournament.

With two hits in her team’s 6-0 win over Washington on Friday, Bruning became the seventh girl to get a hit during a LLWS game and only the third girl to have multiple hits in a game. She also drove in a run, stole a base and scored a run during the game.

[Read more…] about Ella Bruning: Five things to know about the Little League World Series breakout star

Filed Under: Athlete Spotlight, baseball, Women in Sports, Youth Sports

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