CNN
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Brown College Bears freshman utility participant Olivia Pichardo turned the primary girl to play in a Division I baseball recreation on Friday.
Pichardo pinch-hit within the backside of the ninth inning, grounding out to first base because the Bears went on to lose to the Bryant College Bulldogs 10-1 at Murray Stadium in Windfall, Rhode Island.
After the sport, Pichardo stated she needs extra women to know it’s attainable for them to play baseball.
“I simply hope that younger women can watch and see that that is attainable; that it’s not only a dream however it’s a tangible aim they’ll have,” she stated after the sport, in accordance with the workforce web site.
“I actually hope that there’s a entire new wave and technology of ladies that come round and attempt to make it so far as I’ve, and additional in baseball.”
Brown’s head baseball coach Grant Achilles stated gamers must be judged solely on abilities, nothing else.
“I hope Olivia’s accomplishments present those who if somebody is gifted sufficient to be given a chance, they need to be judged solely on their baseball skills. No different components ought to play into that,” Achilles stated, in accordance with the workforce web site.
“Olivia is an instance of that. It’s not simply her placing all of the work and energy in, however a whole community of people that have supported her alongside the way in which.”
Pichardo, who’s from Queens, New York, performed for the USA Baseball Girls’s Nationwide Group in 2022.
“Kelsie Whitmore has been an inspiration for me for a very long time,” Pichardo advised the workforce web site, referring to the 24-year-old pitcher and outfielder who signed with the Atlantic League’s Staten Island FerryHawks in April 2022.
Whitmore is the primary girl to hitch a league affiliated with Main League Baseball.
“She was the primary feminine baseball participant I had ever heard of and ever since, I’ve been following her journey,” added Pichardo. I had the prospect to play on the identical workforce as her on the USA Baseball Girls’s Nationwide Group.”
Brown and Bryant will play a doubleheader Saturday.