Olivia Pichardo Makes Collegiate Baseball History
Since the beginning of professional and collegiate sports, we have seen many barriers broken. We have seen Americans of all ethnicities break through the race barrier and become known as some of the greatest athletes in history. We have seen women break through the sex berries and prove that not only men can play football or football. We have seen barriers of all kinds broken down in almost every sport and we have just witnessed another one in the world of baseball.
A young woman by the name of Olivia Pichardo decided to attend walk-on tryouts for the baseball team at Brown University. It was announced earlier this week that made the roster for this upcoming season as a utility player, but that's not all. Along with making the roster, Pichardo was officially named the first woman to play division-I baseball in history.
https://twitter.com/espn/status/1594776261615919105?s=46&t=4KwawHNy0ilwXZysCtcuKA
Now, there have been other female baseball players at the collegiate level, but never at the division-I level which is known to be the highest level of competition in collegiate athletics. Here is the team's announcement and what Olivia had to say after this historical achievement.
https://twitter.com/brownu_baseball/status/1594724690572070912?s=46&t=4KwawHNy0ilwXZysCtcuKA
This is not something that just happened overnight for the young phenom, she has been playing baseball at the highest level her whole life. Before Brown University, Olivia played for the U.S. Women's National baseball team and a couple of clubs in New York. Even at the young age of fifteen years old, Olivia showed tremendous promise as she was recorded hitting un-real speeds when pitching.
https://twitter.com/baseballfor_all/status/1205662224917778432?s=46&t=4KwawHNy0ilwXZysCtcuKA
Olivia's story has already started to circulate across social media and she has even caught the attention of some top organizations.
https://twitter.com/mets/status/1594780039492558848?s=46&t=9VStYK472CO3tbCEeulL3w
https://twitter.com/usabaseball/status/1594801624555606016?s=46&t=9VStYK472CO3tbCEeulL3w
https://twitter.com/mlb/status/1594796745518620683?s=46&t=9VStYK472CO3tbCEeulL3w
Olivia's story is incredible and couldn't have been down without all of the trailblazers who came before her. One of those trailblazers is a former Ragin' Cajun, Melissa Mayeaux. Melissa was a former do-it-all player during her career at UL but was widely known as the first woman named eligible to be drafted by the MLB.
Even though Melissa would eventually come to the States to play college softball, she paved the way for young barrier breakers like Olivia to continue pushing the envelope and raising the stakes. We wish Oliva Pichardo the best of luck in her career at Brown University and will certainly follow her throughout her Journey.