Genevieve Beacom: 17-year-old becomes first female to play in Australian baseball league
2 min read
An Aussie teenager has made sporting history as the first woman to pitch in a professional Australian league team.
You don’t often see baseball breaking through to mainstream headlines in Australia, it takes something pretty incredible.
That incredible thing comes in the form of 17-year-old Genevieve Beacom, who became the first female pitcher to ever play in the professional Australian baseball league.
She made her historic debut for the Melbourne Aces on Saturday in the Melbourne Challenge Series, after signing up as a development player earlier this month.
Beacom was subbed into the match against Adelaide Giants during the Giants’ final innings. They recorded no hits and no runs during her time as pitcher.
“When I got out there I just wanted to shut down the runs,” she said in a post-game interview. “They had some momentum so the goal was just to stop the run-scoring.”
She went on to thank her family and coaches for supporting her, and sharing some wise words for anyone hoping to follow in her footsteps.
“Do what you want to do and just know that if you work hard enough you can definitely make it somewhere, it’s not impossible. It can be done.”
It’s not the first time she’s broken new ground in her baseball career. She was the first woman to pitch in a Victorian Summer League division one game and she has represented both Victoria and Australia at youth levels.
Aces coach, Pete Moylan, told The Washington Post that Beacom more than earned her spot on the team.
“I have watched this young lady develop as a baseballer from her junior days, including playing for Victoria and Australia, and doing more than holding her own against the top baseballers in the country and from around the world,” he said.
“If anyone thinks this is just a token selection, then they need to think again because she has 100 per cent earned her spot on the development list with the Melbourne Aces.”
Beacom made national news in the US where she described the reaction to her game as “astounding” in an interview with the MLB Network.
“I’m just a 17-year-old playing baseball. And it feels crazy to me, to be able to have this opportunity but just the reaction to it. The reaction was just astounding, I couldn’t believe it at all”.
