色界吧

The Occidental Photos by Charlie Finnerty
Members of 色界吧's women's baseball club team

After only a month of practices 色界吧鈥檚 Womxn鈥檚 Baseball team earned a second place finish and sportsmanship award at their first Baseball for All Women鈥檚 College Club Championships. 

This article was written for and originally published in The Occidental, the independent student-run newspaper at 色界吧.  and more coverage online at .

By Charlie Finnerty

Top image: Robyn Rubin-Valverde (first year), Ayva Sloo (first year), Emily Wills (first year), Ellie McKinney (junior), Cleo Welch (first year) and Meghan Dayton (junior) of the Womxn鈥檚 Baseball team.

In the early morning of March 20, members of 色界吧 Womxn鈥檚 Baseball piled into Ellie McKinney鈥檚 (junior) 2009 Honda Civic to make their way to MLB Youth Academy in Compton. Less than a month after first practices, the team headed to the first  Women鈥檚 College Club Championships, where they competed against similarly new teams from Montclair State University and the University of Washington, taking home second place at the end of the weekend.

Pitcher and catcher Carly Mitchell (senior), the founder and de facto coach of the team, said she started playing baseball in the same league as her older brother when she was 4 years old but switched to softball when she hit puberty.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember ever being asked if I wanted to go into softball,鈥 Mitchell said. 鈥淚t felt like what my parents thought was the natural next step. I guess I didn鈥檛 even realize until I got into high school that softball was great, but I always preferred baseball.鈥

First base player Robyn Rubin-Valverde (first year), who played softball through high school, said she joined within five minutes of seeing Mitchell鈥檚 email about the team, inspired by her grandfather鈥檚 love for the sport.

鈥淢y grandpa loves baseball. He lives in Nicaragua, out in the rural area, and he鈥檚 a big Cardinals fan. When he heard I was doing softball, he was extremely excited but he was like, 鈥榃hy not baseball?鈥 and I was like, 鈥榃ell, there鈥檚 no opportunity,'鈥 Rubin-Valverde said. 鈥淎ctually getting out here and playing my grandpa鈥檚 favorite sport, it felt really connected given that he鈥檚 three or four thousand miles away. I never get to see him, but I鈥檓 doing something he loves.鈥

Baseball For All was founded in 2010 by Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach for an MLB organization. According to their website, only 1 percent of girls who play youth baseball continue the sport in high school.

鈥淚 got tired of waiting for opportunities so I decided to build them,鈥 Siegal said. 鈥淚 think that if you love baseball, then that鈥檚 the sport you should be able to play and female students deserve the same opportunities that male students already have.鈥

While this year鈥檚 tournament included only three teams, Siegal said she plans to rapidly expand the collegiate Baseball For All league and expects 8鈥12 teams to compete next year.

鈥淓ventually our goal is to have NCAA status and, in order for that to happen, we have to show that leagues are viable,鈥 Siegal said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 suggest when we鈥檒l have NCAA status, but I can tell you that we鈥檒l have 50 teams in less than five years.鈥

Members of the Womxn鈥檚 Baseball team at 色界吧 in Los Angeles, CA.
Katelyn Mulcahy, a freelance sports photographer based in LA who covered the Baseball For All tournament for the MLB, said the photos she captured of Occidental鈥檚 team are some of her favorite photos of her career.

鈥淭he camera really loved them because they were so happy. They were genuinely happy and that鈥檚 why I think they were some of my favorite photos I鈥檝e made in a very long time,鈥 Mulcahy said. 鈥淚 think they understood just as much as we did that what they were doing was huge.鈥

Mulcahy also said that Maybelle Blair, a former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player who played in the 1940s and 50s, attended the tournament as a fan.

鈥淪he is a legendary women鈥檚 trailblazer in baseball,鈥 Mulcahy said. 鈥淚 think she was there to watch this new generation bring back what she had once been a part of. She stayed there for the whole game, she was just loving it.鈥

Mitchell said she hopes that Occidental鈥檚 team can serve as an example and inspiration for young girls interested in playing baseball.

鈥淔or me it wasn鈥檛 so much about winning,鈥 Mitchell said. 鈥淚t was about being a representation to other people. Even if we weren鈥檛 doing well, we were still out there trying and I knew that was going to be a precedent over anything else. When other girls are looking into colleges and they come across these photos, they鈥檒l be able to say, 鈥極h I can do this in college too, it鈥檚 an option to me,鈥 because it wasn鈥檛 an option before.鈥

Mitchell said training for the tournament consisted of only a few weeks of irregular practices at Yosemite Park, interrupted by spring break. Without official club sport recognition from the college, the team does not have access to Occidental鈥檚 baseball fields or transportation resources, relying on players鈥 cars to get to the tournament and paying out of pocket for time at batting cages, according to outfielder Meghan Dayton* (junior). They barely had enough players to fill out a full roster, so if one person was unable to make it to the tournament, the team would not be able to play, according to second base player Cleo Welch (first year).

Mulcahy said that none of those logistical hurdles were visible when Occidental鈥檚 team arrived at the tournament.

鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 have been able to guess that it was as stressful a situation as it probably was. I know that none of them had breaks. Every single time that they were out on the field it wasn鈥檛 like they had any subs whatsoever,鈥 Mulcahy said. 鈥淏y the end of day two, I was like 鈥極h yeah, that鈥檚 Carly, that鈥檚 Siena, that鈥檚 Meghan.鈥 It was cool because they all just had such unique personalities and there weren鈥檛 a ton of them.鈥

Rubin-Valverde said that behind the lightheartedness of the team culture, every player takes their role seriously as leaders in breaking down the barriers of a male-dominated sport.

鈥淚t feels like a big responsibility. Yeah, we鈥檙e playful, we鈥檙e cool, we鈥檙e having fun, but we鈥檙e also very serious out there on that field,鈥 Rubin-Valverde said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to show that women can take this sport equally as serious and play equally as well as men can.鈥

Dayton said Occidental鈥檚 advance to the championship game came as a surprise to the team.

鈥淲e won the second game, which we were completely shocked by,鈥 Dayton said. 鈥淲e all thought we were gonna get crushed in every game. We didn鈥檛 even know if we would have enough players until everyone showed up.鈥

Welch said members of the team had not imagined they would make it to the championship game March 21 and had to email their professors about missing class at the last minute.

鈥淚t all moved so quickly. How do you go from playing zero hours of baseball, to nine hours a week, to then two 12-hour days of baseball, then no practices the next week?鈥 Welch said. 鈥淭hat car ride back [from the second game], I heard one girl say, 鈥極h, I guess I can鈥檛 go to class tomorrow.鈥

In addition to winning second place, Occidental was also selected for the tournament鈥檚 sportsmanship award, which Dayton said she felt was well deserved.

鈥淲e were constantly cracking jokes like, 鈥榃hat are we doing here? How did we end up here?'鈥 Dayton said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 really feel like much of a baseball player, so to say that we鈥檙e technically second in the nation feels a little silly. But for sportsmanship, we did cheer everyone on the other teams on, we were having so much fun cracking jokes, the cameras loved us. That one we felt like we truly won.鈥

Mitchell said she was especially proud of the team鈥檚 sportsmanship award.

鈥淚 felt like a proud parent,鈥 Mitchell said. 鈥淓ven though we were making history and this was the first time this had ever been done, we didn鈥檛 lose that child-like wonder when it comes to playing sports. That鈥檚 the biggest thing for me. Connecting with this sport is connecting back to my childhood self who just went out there and had fun, and I feel like that鈥檚 exactly what we did. Even in the moments where it didn鈥檛 look like we had it together very much, we still had a smile and were supporting one another.鈥