When Sementelli first came to the team her teammates were surprised and even said, "A girl, whoa." But then they realized how good she was and accepted her in such a male dominated sport. Her coach, Matt Lowry was quoted saying, "It's a great thing. I've never heard of it happening in high school sports where a girl's going to face a girl in an all-boy-dominated sport." An interesting fact is that there are roughly around 365 girls playing high school baseball in California but none have pitched against each other. Sementelli has said that there are uncomfortable situations but feels as though they are all her brothers. She was quoted saying, "they stick by no matter what... but they are very protective of me."
Having baseball as a male-dominated sport and now seeing a few hundred girls getting involved in high school baseball is a modern day League of Their Own. It just makes me think that having such a story on the news will bring more awareness to other girls that want to also play baseball in high school. I know that they will likely face issues like Sementelli did when she first joined the team. Her teammates were unsure of playing with a girl, but once they saw how good she was they accepted her. But one must ask, why should it come down to how good she is to make her acceptable to her teammates? Is that fair to her? The bigger question is how can the school and coaches make it easier for the athlete to be more accepted no matter if the player is a boy or girl or what kind of talent level they are at. Having this story come out will hopefully bring more awareness and help to change people's minds about girls entering male-dominated sports.
Jodie Goya
T/Th 2:00
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