She made pro sports history – again

Fort Mill native Anna Kimbrell is no stranger to making history.

As a baseball player, she has been a part of Team USA’s women’s squad since 2006 and played on the Women’s Baseball World Cup team on four separate occasions, but even before that, she made history as the first girl to play high school baseball and American Legion baseball in the state of South Carolina.

There was one thing missing, however. Kimbrell had always wanted to play on a men’s professional team. She can check that one off her list now, too.

Kimbrell recently signed and competed with the Sonoma Stompers, a member of the Pacific Association Professional Baseball League, in Sonoma, Calif. While the Stompers are not affiliated with any major or minor league team, they are considered one of about 60 independent professional baseball teams around the country.

“It has been a great experience,” Kimbrell said. “All the guys have been accepting and it has helped to have Stacy (Piagno) and Kelsie (Whitmore) here as well.”

Piagno and Whitmore, both women, also have played with Sonoma. It is believed that these three women are the first to play in a professional game since the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League existed during the World War II era as depicted in the movie “A League of Their Own.”

Kimbrell graduated from Nation Ford High School in 2009 and the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 2013. She works as a member of the groundskeeper crew at Hoover Met Stadium in Birmingham and said she could only afford to play for a short period of time with the Stompers.

Sonoma contacted her back in May about coming to play for the team, but she couldn’t do so at the time becaue the SEC Baseball Tournament was going on at Hoover Met. She was able to join the Stompers for a week in July but couldn’t stay longer than that.

“They wanted me for the month, but I couldn’t do it because of work,” she said. “What I would get paid in one month is what equals to just one of my paychecks at work.”

Kimbrell played in one game with Sonoma, catching Whitmore for two innings, making them the first all-female battery in men’s pro baseball history, according to the Stompers. Kimbrell played the entire game and was credited with an assist and eight putouts defensively. She went 0-3 at the plate.

Kimbrell said she would like to be able to get back to Sonoma and hopes to play with them again next summer for an even longer stint.

This story was originally published July 28, 2016 at 4:25 PM with the headline "She made pro sports history – again."