Brown University freshman Olivia Pichardo made college baseball history with a late-inning pinch-hit performance in an eventual loss to Bryant. After stepping onto the plate, Pichardo became the first woman to ever appear in a Division I college baseball game:
Pichardo’s game-changing moment ended with a first ground-out:
Brown eventually lost the game 10-1. As NCAA.com notes, Pichardo is one of eight women on a college baseball roster this season, but the only one at the Division 1 level.
After playing for the USA women’s national baseball team, Pichardo, a native of Queens, joined Brown’s team as a walk-on last November. This made her the first woman ever to serve on a Division 1 college baseball roster. “Each fall, we hold tryouts for students who are interested in joining our team,” Grant Achilles, head coach of the Brown baseball team, told a Brown University reporter at the time. “It’s a workout common to baseball and allows us to assess athleticism and arm strength, as well as both offensive and defensive ability.
“I’m just really happy that we’re getting more and more female baseball players at the collegiate level, and no matter what the division, it’s just really good to see that progress,” Pichardo said shortly after joining the team. “It really paves the way for other girls in the next generation to also have those goals that they want to achieve, dream big and know they can do it.”