The second female athlete to compete in an official high school baseball tournament organized by the Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) has been born.
You may remember Ahn Hyang-mi, 42, a junior at Deoksu Information High School, who became the first woman to compete in an official high school baseball tournament when she pitched in the 1999 Presidential Games.
Twenty-four years later, on Nov. 19, the second female player in history took the field in a high school baseball tournament. Naru High School sophomore Son Ga-eun (17-Utuuta) is the story.
Son started as the eighth batter and first baseman against Eunpyeong District BC in the first inning of the 51st Phoenix Games at Sewol Stadium on April 19. Although she struck out in her first at-bat of the game, she became the first female athlete in 24 years and the second after Ahn Hyang-mi to play in an official high school game.
Son also earned her first call-up to the South Korean women’s national team last year. This year, she missed out on the final 20-player roster due to a strong outfield of Shin Nuri, An Su-ji, Joo Eun-jung, and Yang Seo-jin, but made it to the 30-player roster. Despite the heartbreak of missing out on the national team, Son continued to work hard on her baseball training and eventually made history.
“I was playing baseball for ‘Hwaseong City Junior,’ but the manager of ‘Hwaseong Dongtan Baseball’ asked me to join, so I joined ‘Hwaseong Dongtan Baseball,'” Son said when contacted by Sports Seoul on Tuesday.
‘Hwaseong Dongtan Baseball’ is a new club team made up of high school students. The majority of female baseball players head to women’s social baseball teams after graduating from middle school. They don’t play with boys. However, Son Ga-eun played for the Hwaseong City Little Baseball Team until middle school, and after graduating, she chose to play for a women’s social baseball team (the Black Pulse) and train with male high school students.
“At first, I didn’t want to play baseball with male high school students because I wasn’t confident that I would be good at it, but I wanted to play high school baseball so that girls’ baseball would be more popular, so I joined the team,” she explains.
“I decided to go to the Phoenix Games, but I honestly didn’t think I would play, so I wasn’t nervous, but when the coach announced the starting lineup, I was so nervous that I couldn’t hear anything around me. It’s unfortunate that the team lost, and I’m even more disappointed that I didn’t get a hit.” Hwaseong Dongtan lost the cold game in five innings, 0-15, to Eunpyeong District BC.
While Ahn Hyang-mi competed in official high school baseball tournaments as a member of her high school’s baseball team, Son Ga-eun competed in high school tournaments as a member of a club team, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is another female athlete on the high school baseball stage.토토사이트
The Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA), which co-organized the phoenix tournament with The Korea Times, confirmed to Sports Seoul that “Son Ga-eun is the second female player to compete in the National High School Baseball Tournament organized by the association.” And so, once again, the barrier has been broken.