11 year old girl pitches perfect Little League game

[JeeberD]

Not only that, but she struck out all 18 batters she faced!

In a league of her own: Girl hurls perfect game against boys

OAKFIELD, N.Y. -- Katie Brownell is a shy 11-year-old girl of few words. But when she gets on the baseball field, she lets her pitching do the talking.

Brownell is the only girl in the Oakfield-Alabama Little League baseball program in this community about halfway between Buffalo and Rochester. On Saturday, that didn't stop her from accomplishing something league officials can't remember anybody _ boy or girl _ ever doing.

She threw a perfect game for the Dodgers in an 11-0 victory over the Yankees.

How dominant was she? She struck out all 18 batters she faced in the six-inning victory. She never got to a three-ball count on any of them.

"As far back as I can remember, I don't ever recall hearing of a perfect game," said Eric Klotzbach, league president.

Katie said she knew she had a chance for something special in the fourth inning. Fortunately, Katie's coach, Joe Sullivan, realized that, too.

He had intended to pull Katie at some point during the game and was ready to do it when the scorekeeper told him she had a no-hitter going.

"I can't pull her out," Sullivan said after taking a look at the score book himself.

So, Katie kept mowing down the opposition and completed the task. Then the place exploded.

"Everybody congratulated me," Katie said.

Katie, who is in 6th grade, also pitched a one-hitter in the first game of the year. She accounted for all 15 outs in the five innings she pitched in that game. She had 14 strikeouts and got the other out on a grounder to the mound that she tossed to first.

"She's been pitching for three years, but she's really came on and excelled this year," said Jeff Sage, manager of the team, who didn't get to see Saturday's game because of his job as a firefighter in Rochester. "She bats really well. She's a solid, all-around ballplayer."

At the plate, Katie's hitting .714 through the team's first three games.

Her sense for the game developed from playing baseball with siblings and friends.

"She had older brothers and we were always outside, so the minute she could pick up a ball, she was" playing, said her mother, Denise Bischoff.

In her first year with the Dodgers, Katie, the daughter of Mark Brownell, played with her older brothers, Jonathan and Joshua. Initially, she wasn't even going to play baseball this year, and instead eyed the softball team.

"Two weeks before the first game, when was it too late for her to switch over to softball, she decided to stick with hardball," Sullivan said. "Fortunately for us."


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...gion-apnewyork

Wow...I wonder if she's going to stick with baseball or if she's going to go with softball in the future. I suppose she really has more of a future with softball than baseball.

[st.cronin]

Gotta be on the juice.

[Passacaglia]

Either that, or she's really 17.

[Ksyrup]

I hope someone's watching the pitch counts!


Man, I can only hope that's my daughter in 6 years. She's playing t-ball right now and is better than half the boys on her team (of course, we're talking 5-6 year olds). She'll play t-ball again next year, then we'll decide whether to switch her to softball or keep her in "regular" baseball.

[LoneStarGirl]

As an umpire I regularly see girls on boy's teams, but only up to the ten year old level. And almost always the girls on those teams are better than the boys on their team. It is amazing to watch the girls dominate out there and make the other team's boys cry when they strike them out.

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by LoneStarGirl

As an umpire I regularly see girls on boy's teams, but only up to the ten year old level. And almost always the girls on those teams are better than the boys on their team. It is amazing to watch the girls dominate out there and make the other team's boys cry when they strike them out.

It's been years since I've seen little league games with regularity, but yeah I do remember that girls who play on little league baseball teams are:

1. Almost always pitchers
2. Almost always dominating

[st.cronin]

Tangential recollection

When I played high school ball one of our opponents had a girl who played third base. She had a ridiculous cannon for an arm, one of the best arms I can remember seeing, and without question the most repulsive temper imaginable. She was ejected twice (once for throwing her helmet at an umpire) that I remember, and I think she may have been thrown off the team at one point.

[Ksyrup]

When I was on a traveling team in Georgia, we played a team with a girl pitcher. She wasn't that good, though. I remember that I hit a double off of her, and our biggest guy ("Hoss," of course) struck out and had to live with that for the rest of the year.

[McSweeny]

if i have a daughter she is playing baseball and not softball. Why don't they have women's baseball instead of screwing up the game and calling it softball?

[LoneStarGirl]

Females can't get a college scholarship in baseball and girls aren't alllowed to play baseball in high school. The only reason most girls play baseball at a young age is because there are no competetive softball teams around that young. Most of them start around 11 or 12, so if girls want to play they are forced to join, and dominate, a boy's team.
I played softball since I was 4 years old. Thankfully there was always a competitive girl's league around so i didn't have to play baseball with the boys. And softball is why my college doesn't cost me a dime.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

Tangential recollection

When I played high school ball one of our opponents had a girl who played third base. She had a ridiculous cannon for an arm, one of the best arms I can remember seeing, and without question the most repulsive temper imaginable. She was ejected twice (once for throwing her helmet at an umpire) that I remember, and I think she may have been thrown off the team at one point.

how were her jugs?

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by LoneStarGirl

Females can't get a college scholarship in baseball and girls aren't alllowed to play baseball in high school. The only reason most girls play baseball at a young age is because there are no competetive softball teams around that young. Most of them start around 11 or 12, so if girls want to play they are forced to join, and dominate, a boy's team.
I played softball since I was 4 years old. Thankfully there was always a competitive girl's league around so i didn't have to play baseball with the boys. And softball is why my college doesn't cost me a dime.

What?

Is that true (in Mississippi I assume)? Girls can and do play in Texas if they're good enough.

[DanGarion]

Ila Borders anyone?

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by LoneStarGirl

Females can't get a college scholarship in baseball and girls aren't alllowed to play baseball in high school. The only reason most girls play baseball at a young age is because there are no competetive softball teams around that young. Most of them start around 11 or 12, so if girls want to play they are forced to join, and dominate, a boy's team.
I played softball since I was 4 years old. Thankfully there was always a competitive girl's league around so i didn't have to play baseball with the boys. And softball is why my college doesn't cost me a dime.

That's what is dominating my whole thought process on this issue with my daughter - a scholarship!

We have softball that starts fairly young, it looks like - probably 8-9 years old. I think I'd rather her play baseball for as long as she can; the switch to softball shouldn't be that big a deal. I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

[rkmsuf]

Girls are perfectly welcome in little league all the way until they are 12.

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by George W Bush

how were her jugs?

I assume you mean her radar gun readings. I would guess in the 80s, but I have no idea.

[JW]

Originally Posted by LoneStarGirl

As an umpire I regularly see girls on boy's teams, but only up to the ten year old level. And almost always the girls on those teams are better than the boys on their team. It is amazing to watch the girls dominate out there and make the other team's boys cry when they strike them out.

Exactly. The showing by this 11-year-old is not surprising at all. It is about this level that the boys start to really grow bigger and stronger than the girls. This is imho unremarkable. I'll get excited when she makes a major college baseball team.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by JW

This is imho unremarkable.

I may agree with everything else you say, but I doubt this. She freakin threw a perfect game AND struck out every batter she faced AND she is only 11. There is nothing unremarkable about this. I'm sure most 11 year olds have a hard time finding the strike zone, let alone a perfect game in which she strikes EVERY batter out.

[JPhillips]

When I coached 7-8 yr. olds we had a boy like that. He would pitch the end of games for us and almost always strike out every batter. He was miles beyond the kids at his age level. We would have pitched him in complete games, but there was an inning restriction.

Too bad for us he moved away and we had to rely on theother coach's son.

[Young Drachma]

How about those Colorado Silver Bullets. Oh wait..

[stkelly52]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2085269
Now her jersy is going to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

[Karlifornia]

ESPN.com just reported that they found her birth certificate, which states that her real name is "Danielle Almonte"

[LoneStarGirl]

Originally Posted by LoneStarGirl
Females can't get a college scholarship in baseball and girls aren't alllowed to play baseball in high school.

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

What?

Is that true (in Mississippi I assume)? Girls can and do play in Texas if they're good enough.

I am a little late on this but Huckleberry, I was born and raised in Texas and I assure you no girls play baseball on the high school level. That is why they have softball.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by stkelly52

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2085269
Now her jersy is going to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It's funny that she didn't originally want to give the jersey up.