'Our foot is in the door': USA women's baseball team shows Rockford what's possible
The USA Baseball Women’s National Team came to Rockford to pay homage to the Rockford Peaches, made famous by the movie “A League of Their Own,” and help raise money and awareness to build an International Women’s Baseball Center in Rockford.
The players also had a Peaches-like affect on the hundreds who attended Thursday’s exhibition game against Cangelosi Sparks North at Beyer Stadium.
“It’s amazing,” Rockford University senior softball infielder Jocelyn Callahan said of Team USA making a stop in Rockford before heading to Canada for a Women’s Baseball World Cup qualifier. “It brings more culture and awareness to women’s sports and it gives us a little more respect as athletes.
“In society before, it was always one here and the other there,” Callahan said of men’s and women’s sports. “Now, we realize we can do either one.”
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The nation's best women's baseball players drew a crowd that filled 10 sections of bleachers and spilled down both foul lines from the dugouts to the outfield fence.
Team USA starting pitcher Elise Berger, who gave up two runs in three innings, struck out the side in the second. Catcher Denae Benites threw out the first Sparks North runner who tried to steal and also nipped a batter who tried to bunt with a snap-throw to first.
“It’s impressive,” said Dan Obert, a 26-year-old fan from Roscoe. “It’s cool to see some of the best in the world here in Rockford. Good pitch selection. Good hits. Good fielding. All the things you would expect.”
Introducing a new normal
The announcers pitched the game like another Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs “Battle of the Sexes,” with the U.S. Women’s National Team playing an all-star traveling team of high school sophomore and junior boys from the Chicago suburbs.
But the story in Rockford Thursday wasn’t girls vs. boys.
It was girls playing baseball with other girls instead of being the sole player on a boys team.
Audrey Gibbard, 18, is the only girl on her 18-U baseball team in Wilmette. That’s how it usually works.
Just ask Piper Heinbrodt, the only girl on her Huntley 13-U baseball team. Or Sophia Brown, the only girl on her 16-U baseball team in McHenry.
“It feels normal to me,” Heinbrodt said of being the only girl.
On Thursday, she saw a new normal on the same field where the Rockford Peaches, an all-women's baseball team, played 70 years ago.
“This means so much to me,” Heinbrodt said.
“This is truly a great thing,” Brown said. “Girls can do as many things as guys can do. Baseball is becoming more and more popular for girls.”
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Making history
Women’s hockey became an official NCAA sport in 2001. Girls wrestling became an official high school sport in Illinois in 2022.
Thursday was the first time many witnessed the possibility of the same happening for baseball. Women with women and women vs. women on the baseball field. A dream that suddenly looks like reality.
“I had heard of the USA all-girl baseball team, but for them to play this close, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to see them,." Gibbard said. "Girls have been trying to play baseball for so long. I hope this can help push it further and make more people aware of it.”
Team USA is already making history.
One of its players, Kelsie Whitmore, is the first woman to start in the Atlantic League, and the first to start in a pro minor league affiliated with Major League Baseball. Another, Olivia Pichardo, a sophomore at Brown, is the first woman to play in an NCAA Division I baseball game.
“Already, that’s a start,” Gibbard said. “Our foot is in the door."
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: USA women's baseball gives hope to Rockford fans
