Charlotte 12-year-old proves girls can play baseball, too

A commercial asks, when the first woman pitches in the majors, where will you be?

Meredith McFadden of Steele Creek would take the mound.

But McFadden, 12, isn’t picky. She’d settle in behind the plate, or shift over to second base. As long as she gets to play.

“She just wants to be a baseball player,” said mom Heather. “Not a girl baseball player, just a baseball player.”

Meredith started playing baseball at age 4. Her family loves the sport. Early on there were other girls giving the game a try. As years passed, there were fewer. This past season, Meredith went from recreation play with the Steele Creek Athletic Association to travel ball.

“Once or twice there’s another girl on the team,” she said of rec play. “On our travel team, I’m usually the only girl in the tournament.”

Meredith played May 30-June 4 in Orlando, Fla., at Baseball For All. The tournament brought together more than 150 players and 12 teams for a U13 tournament. Every player on every roster was a girl. It was the first such national tournament.

“We’re just girls who love baseball,” Meredith said.

Her Carolina Terminators team combined players from both Carolinas, plus Nevada and Kentucky. Most of the team scrimmaged a boys’ team before the tournament. That was their first and only time playing together. Players weren’t even sure what position they might play at the national event.

“All 80 pounds of her started out playing catcher,” Heather McFadden said.

By the final day, the Terminators were champions. Meredith threw out the last runner on a grounder to second. Players also met forerunners from the 1942 All American Girls Professional Baseball League, made famous by the movie “A League of Their Own.” They met the first female to throw batting practice to a major league team.

For once, players didn’t have to answer the question common to travel ball sites when they arrive.

“When are you going to play softball?” Heather said. “That’s the question we get all the time.”

With Title IX requirements for equal play opportunities for boys and girls, school athletic programs treat sports differently. Colleges don’t sponsor varsity football for women, but they may offer women’s volleyball or another sport to make up for an all-male event. Sports like basketball make it simple, having a team for men and one for women.

High school and college programs generally offer a baseball team for boys, and a softball team for girls.

“I don’t think it’s the same sport,” Meredith said. “I feel like baseball and softball are two polar opposite sports.”

She plans to try out for the Southwest Middle School baseball team next year.

“I think it would be a good opportunity to take another step,” she said.

That idea might be living in a golden age for it. The star of the 2014 Little League World Series was Mo’ne Davis, who brought in a slew of honors including a Sports Illustrated cover and its pick as Sports Kid of the Year. Now there is an AT&T commercial asking where people will watch the first female big-leaguer.

As Meredith goes into middle school, her mother already is looking to see if there is precedent for girls playing on college teams.

“It might have happened a handful of times, but it’s possible,” she said. “It’s not that it’s never been done.”

The more common route is for girls to transition into softball, either at the request of a coach or to pursue playing opportunities.

“I don’t want to make her switch something she loves to do, just because someday she might be able to get a scholarship,” her mom said.

Meredith hopes to inspire other girls to stay with the sport they love. More than anything, she just wants to play.

“It’s what I love to do,” Meredith said.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Charlotte 12-year-old proves girls can play baseball, too."