Girl power

WASILLA — The Wasilla Youth Baseball Association has been fielding teams since 1965.

But one squad to hit the diamond this season is like no other.

The association, affiliated with the national PONY program, is fielding an official all-girls youth baseball team for the first time.

Ambriel Sandone, a member of Pirates all-girl squad, wrote a letter to the Wasilla Youth Baseball board of directors on behalf of her teammates, urging the association to field an official all-girls squad for the first time.

“Baseball’s a big part of my life,” Sandone, a Teeland Middle School student, said after a Pirates practice earlier this month. “My summers wouldn’t be complete without.”

Turns out the summers of 14 other girls wouldn’t be complete either.

Sandone is one of 15 girls, ages 11 through 13, competing in the association’s Bronco Division.

Although it took some effort to put together the first all-girls team in the Wasilla association’s 43-year history, Sandone and her teammates are loving the opportunity to hit the diamond and compete in a sport traditionally dominated by the boys.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Sandone said. “It makes you feel like you’re proving your point, putting yourself out there and proving everyone else wrong. It feels great to be one of the first.”

Although the team was derived, at least in part, by the overall decline in interest for girls softball, Sandone and her teammates maintain they are a group of baseball players, not a group of softball players settling for baseball.

“It’s nice to be able to prove to people, just because baseball is a boys’ sport, it doesn’t mean girls can’t play,” Carli Trout, a 13-year-old on the Pirates, said.

The Pirates, a team that will play at least 20 games in the PONY Bronco Division this season, have the same routines as their male counterparts. They take ground balls in the field, fly balls in the outfield and swings during batting practice.

For the girls who made the move from softball to baseball, there are the differences.

“The ball’s just a little bit smaller,” Trout said. “But that’s pretty much all that’s different. It’s not hard. The rules of the game are the same.”

The girls stress they’re just as eager to compete as the boys, and even motivated by the same things.

“When I first started baseball I was really nervous, but my dad always tells me before a game or a practice to go hard or go home,” the Pirates’ Johnna Elkins said.

And the Pirates are motivated by other factors, such as seeing the all-girls team thrive.

“I want it to be something you can do all your life,” 11-year-old Destiny Rhyme said.

And the team wants to see the interest grow.

“I think it’d be really cool if we got another girls team so we could play them,” Lizzy Anderson, 13, said.

The proposal to field the all-girls team included the waiver to allow 13-year-olds play on the girls’ team in the association’s 11- and 12-year-old age bracket to not only level the playing field, but help with participation.

Wasilla Youth Baseball Association president Bill Kramer said the PONY league uses a system to spread equal talent throughout its teams in each age group. Just as long as the 13-year-old girls are of comparable talent to the 11-and 12-year-olds, the board saw no problem making the allowance.

The board unanimously approved the request for allowing the extra year in the age group.

“We determined these girls can compete and put them in an age group where they could be competitive,” Kramer said.

Kramer said he has had the chance to catch the Pirates in action, and regardless of the numbers on the scoreboard, Kramer is thrilled with the attitude of the players.

“What impressed me most is their attitude is great,” Kramer said. “It’s fun to see the girls excited about playing baseball. They bring a different enthusiasm to the game.”

Gene Sandone, the head coach of the Pirates, said the girls played on a softball team last year, but unofficially competed in the association’s 9- and 10-year old baseball division because there were no other softball teams in the area to play. Youth baseball and softball associations in the Palmer and Eagle River areas are affiliated with the national Little League program, while Wasilla made the transition to the PONY league least year. The PONY league schedule stretches into late July, while the Little League programs are, for the most part, done in early July.

This year, Kramer said the association was not able to get an appropriate number of players to include a softball season.

Not only did the girls have nobody to play on the softball field, Gene Sandone said the girls are also simply very interested in playing baseball.

“They want to play baseball,” said Sandone, who has been coaching youth baseball for more than 20 years.

The creation of the all-girls team also guaranteed playing time for players who may struggle to get playing time on teams dominated by boys.

“We were sick of not getting playing time on boys teams,” Ambriel Sandone said.

Gene Sandone said he’s been impressed by how fast his players have picked up the rules and skills of the game.

“They’re quick studies,” the coach said.

And the girls have also developed their own tactics.

“The boys, we can mess with their heads and they get distracted,” the Pirates’ Donna Raubeson said.

Kramer said it’s hard to know if the idea of an all-girls squad will have staying power or if it’s an anomaly.

“The board just wants them playing,” Kramer said.

The Pirates want to play, and want to see more girls give baseball a try.

“Come out and do it,” Ambriel Sandone said. “You might see it’s a little hard at first. Once you get in the environment with the girls and you’re with your friends, everybody is nice to each other.

“It’s not the fact if you have the physical strength or not, if you’re smart and you know what you’re doing, you can play baseball.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.