Baseball all-star team, with Delaware standout, brings the sport to more girls in the region
When catcher Grace Murray knelt behind the batter's box, she heard some boys on the other team "talking smack" and cracking jokes because her team was all girls.
The opponent turned quiet not too long after.
"That changed when we started beating them like 6-3, 7-3, 9-3,” Grace said.
Twelve-year-old Grace is forging a new path for female youth baseball players in the region, including Delaware. Two years ago, Grace discovered Baseball For All, a girls’ baseball nonprofit organization founded by former Oakland Athletics coach Justine Siegal. The organization has players from 40-plus states that play in tournaments and events.
Grace was determined to play for one of its teams, but no local teams existed. So, the girl from Warwick, Pennsylvania, convinced her father, Ryan Murray, to start the Philadelphia Liberty in 2019, and the group began holding practices in Warminster, Pennsylvania.
COVID-19 derailed what should have been their first season in 2020. Last summer, the Philadelphia Liberty played in its first Baseball For All National Girls Baseball Tournament at The Ripken Experience in Aberdeen, Maryland.
“It was a really amazing moment to see this was just all girls that are there, all doing something they love,” Ryan Murray said. “And it was a lot of hard work to get there, but it was worth every minute of trying to put everything together.”
The Liberty played in two all-boys baseball tournaments last season, winning a few of those games.
"They were ecstatic. I think they were underestimated. Some of the boys were cocky; they were playing girls," said Mike DiGenova, whose daughter, Sophia, 14, of Wilmington, also plays for the team. "I think what you have to realize, every girl playing baseball on one of these teams is a quality player because you can't be bad at baseball and play with boys and be a girl."
They are set to play in another all-boys tournament, Sports at the Beach in Sussex County, Delaware, on July 22-25.
The team has developed a strong connection over the past two years. There is a unique bond between the players and coaches. Some of the players travel from Delaware and New York to play, so they are not able to see each other for months.
“We all love baseball. We all want to play baseball,” Grace said. “So, knowing that we are all girls, we immediately became best friends with each other.”
Farrell Everett and Ed Kretser both coach the Philadelphia Liberty.
Everett’s relationship with her players is special because she understands how important this is to them.
She is a big supporter of each girl.
“When I am catching, she motivates me and has nicknames for me,” Grace said. “She is like, ‘Come on, Grace, you are a wall back there.’ Because nothing can get behind me when I am catching, so she tries to motivate me as much as she can. I feel like all my teammates have a special bond with Farrell.”
Sophia DiGenova calls it “refreshing” when she meets up with her Liberty teammates.
One of Sophia’s favorite memories came after a loss. She pitched three scoreless innings in the team’s 7-6 loss to the New York Wonders in the DMV Series championship game last October.
Sophia remembers how her teammates stayed positive after a tough defeat.
“Everyone lifts each other up,” Sophia said. “Someone may strike out here and there, might make an error in the field. But seeing all these other women around you who are also playing, it’s motivating to just get back up and play some more.”
“At the end of the day, whether we win or lose, it is not about that,” Sophia said. “It’s just fun and exciting for everyone. You learn to value your teammates and your friends more than the results of the game.”
When the team is not playing together, most of the players spend a lot of their time playing travel baseball on boys teams.
Grace also plays with the Warwick Bulldogs. She led the Bulldogs with over a .430 batting average, and she drove in the most RBIs last season. She was the first girl selected to the Pennsylvania Suburban Travel All-Star Game in its 23 years. And she won the home run derby for the majors division of Warwick Township against some of her teammates.
Everyone watched as Grace showcased her bat.
“I didn’t even feel (the ball) because it hit the barrel,” Grace said. “Hearing everyone, like my 12U team, my teammates and then 11U kids, they were all like, ‘Oh no, that is out. We can’t catch that.’ I knew before I actually saw it fall out of the fence because everyone was screaming, ‘Oh, that is a home run, add that to the list.’”
Grace was intentionally walked after a few successful turns at the plate in Warwick’s first game of the season against Northampton Township.
And teams walk Grace because she is a game-changer with her bat.
“She is a fantastic player, just an amazing hitter,” Warwick Bulldogs President and Grace’s coach, Brandon Hawes, said. “If you would just see her hit the ball, hard contact. She is constantly working on her skills, working on her game. Whether it is practicing with us or whether it’s hitting on our cages, her and her dad over there hitting.”
Grace trains at the Warminster Baseball Center and All-Star Baseball Academy in Warminster.
“I would just say she works for everything she has,” Hawes said. “And all the talent she has, she’s worked so hard for years to get to where she is at.”
Grace hit a walkoff double against Falls Township, giving the Bulldogs a 6-5 win on May 22.
Sophia is also a rising star.
She was the first girl to make the P.S. du Pont Middle School baseball team this past spring. Sophia just graduated from eighth grade, and she hopes to make the Charter School of Wilmington’s baseball team next spring.
In 2018-19, the National Federation of State High School Associations conducted a high school athletics participation survey. The numbers revealed only 1,284 girls played high school baseball compared to 482,740 boys that year.
Sophia believes younger girls can follow in her footsteps and play baseball for P.S. du Pont next year.
“It’s inspiring incoming sixth and seventh graders to come and try out for baseball next year with some of my teammates’ younger siblings (that) are girls and such,” Sophia said. “That was something for me, it kind of made waves in my school.”
Sophia has never thought about switching over to softball.
"Middle school age is where a lot of girls start transitioning over from baseball to softball," Sophia said. "It is really important if you want to stick with baseball and you really think that is what you want to do, then go for it. You should put your head down and grind it out."
Grace and Sophia faced some challenges along the way. Sophia felt shocked when some parents booed her when she walked up to the plate this past season.
Before Grace played for Warwick, she was cut from a travel baseball team, and she believes it has nothing to do with her talent.
“Warwick Bulldogs are so supportive of Grace and playing baseball. Her teammates, the coaches, the parents, they are really supportive of her playing baseball. They want to see her succeed,” her father, Ryan Murray, said. “And they cheer for her and they are really happy for her. We are very fortunate, we have an amazing team that loves to see her do what she loves to do.”
Currently, Warwick has 10 female players in the entire youth league organization. Hawes is looking to double those numbers next season. Eventually, he would like at least 10% of his players to be girls.
The Bulldogs received approval for a new full-sized baseball field, and it should be ready for next spring. Before this decision was made, players over the age of 12 would leave Warwick Township because the current field is too small. Grace and Brandon Hawes both spoke in front of Warwick Township officials and convinced them to build the new field, so now Grace and other players can stay.
Grace’s next goal is to make Tamanend’s Middle School baseball team and become the first female baseball player to play baseball in the Central Bucks School District.
Like many other girls, Grace and Sophia are proving they can be good at baseball. There always might be some negativity surrounding their choice to play, but Grace believes ignoring the hate is the best way to go about it.
“They should always push the negative things away and let it roll off their back because they are going to get that in life,” Grace said. “There are going to be people out there that don’t want them to play baseball. But you just have to let it roll off your back and stick with the sport you love and want to play."
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: With Delaware star, girls baseball team holds its own against boys
