GOING TO BAT FOR HER COUNTRY

By Chris Gasper

Thursday, June 17, 2004

LYNN As a pint-sized Pine Hill Little Leaguer, Lynn's Donna Mills never thought that one day she would be trying out for the women's national baseball team in her hometown. "I never imagined being at Fraser Field just as a woman playing baseball," said Mills, a Lynn native. But there she was at Fraser Field on June 5, along with 33 other hopefuls, all clad in T-shirts that replaced their surnames with the slogan, "Women Play Baseball Too!" They were basking in the glow of a landmark moment for the women's game the tryouts for the inaugural USA Baseball-sanctioned women's national team. The US team will compete in the Women's World Cup in Edmonton, Alberta, from July 30 to Aug. 8. American women have played in international competitions before Mills was a member of the teams that represented the United States at the Women's World Series in 2001, 2002, and 2003 but never with the imprimatur of USA Baseball, the country's governing body for international baseball competition. "It's a huge step," said North Shore Spirit owner Nick Lopardo, an advocate for the women's game and the general manager of the national team. "We couldn't do this without the sanction. . . . It gives it legitimacy and an open environment, something that has been missing in women's baseball and something the girls wanted." With family, friends, and former players from the famed All-American Girls Professional Baseball League looking on, players who were plucked from four regional tryouts across the country competed for one of 18 spots on the national team and their place in history. Mills, a 30-year-old court officer in Lynn Juvenile Court, got both. The former Lynn Tech and University of Massachusetts at Lowell softball star was the only player who hails from the North region to earn a roster spot. "To represent this country is incredible, especially with the state of the world and the war and everything," said Mills, who returned to baseball five years ago after spending the previous 11 years playing softball. "To wear that USA jersey is something special." A third of the US roster consists of players from the New England Women's Baseball League, a four-team women's league funded by Lopardo that played at Fraser Field last summer. Mills was joined on the roster by California transplant Keri Lemasters, now a Salem resident; Robin Wallace, the executive director of the women's league; recent Boston Latin graduate Ashley Cook; Judy O'Brien of Reading; and Amy Stinton of Wallingford, Conn. All six were members of the league's traveling all-star team, the Lady Spirit, which finished second at the Amateur Athletic Union Women's National Championships last year. Spirit minority owner Al Melanson, who served as the commissioner of the Lynn-based women's league, said he and Lopardo are thrilled to see their investment in women's baseball pay off. "To have so many girls from the league make the team is really something special," said Melanson. "We're proud of them." Wallace, an Alabama native, said she thought that the competition level and organization of the New England women's league, which drew players from all across the country last year, was the reason a half-dozen players from the league were chosen. She does not believe Lopardo's role as GM factored into the decision. "I don't think that helped at all," said Wallace. "I think the process was fair from the get-go. The girls had always complained that there was no fair tryout process or no structure to the tryouts and that is what Nick and Al created. The coaches picked the team and there were a couple of girls from our league that didn't make the team that I thought should have made it." "We're looking for 18 women that can go win a gold medal," said Lopardo, who sat in on the selection process but did not have final say on roster decisions. That belonged to head coach Marty Scott, a former Texas Rangers farm director, and his staff, who were hired by USA Baseball executive director Paul Seiler to assemble the team. The coaching staff and the committee spent about five hours evaluating players last Saturday and then brought them back for a shorter session on Sunday. It was the first time that a US women's baseball team was picked using such a rigorous process. Mills certainly didn't need any preferential treatment. She shined on her own. The slugging third basemen, who made the long throw across the diamond look easy, went 3-for-3 at the plate, including a booming triple to center field, and fell just a home run short of the cycle. She also pitched a 1-2-3 inning on the mound. "I definitely see her competing for a starting spot and being an integral part of this team," said Scott. Lemasters turned in a pair of defensive gems from shortstop, scooping up a high chopper on the run and making an off-balance throw to first to take away an infield base hit, and leaping to snare a line drive. Mills, who said that playing in front of her family and friends on a familiar diamond was an advantage she joked that she knew where all the holes were. But she said that even if she hadn't made the squad, just being able to say she was at the first-ever official tryout was incredible. Wallace, who never converted to softball, spoke for all of the players selected when she called the experience a dream come true. "I was dreaming about this before there even was a national team," she said. "I still can't even believe it's real. I keep thinking am I going to wake up?"