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The Nashua Telegraph Only Hardball For Her Saturday, March 24, 2007 When she saw the opposing catcher call time in the middle of her at-bat and go out to the mound in a recent game in Florida against Curry College, Christal Fitzgerald had an idea what was coming.Plunk. The next pitch nailed her in the middle of her back, and she took first base. Granted, the Daniel Webster College baseball team she plays for was trailing 9-1. So what was the point? Well, no matter what it was, Fitzgerald didn’t get mad. She got even. “The next play, I took out the shortstop at second base (on a double play attempt),” she said. “My reaction was a little more combative,” Daniel Webster College head coach Jim Cardello said. “The first thing I did was step outside the dugout and take a look at their coach to see if he had anything to do with it. He didn’t. “I knew it was on purpose right away. The first pitch she saw from the kid was a fastball and she was right on it, fouled it straight back. And he got nervous – he didn’t want to give up a hit to a girl. “It doesn’t register in my mind, but I can see where it comes from. Nobody wants to be shown up by somebody who’s out of the ordinary. And she’s out of the ordinary.” How out of the ordinary? Fitzgerald, who came over from Sydney, Australia, to play in the North American Woman’s Baseball League (brought to Nashua by Pride owner John Stabile and general manager Robin Wallace), is just the fourth woman ever to play collegiate baseball. “It’s kind of humorous to me that a pitcher is scared enough that I’m going to hit them that they have to hit me to get on base,” she said. Ironically, that incident may have been a rite of passage for the 22-year-old Fitzgerald. She met Cardello when he was coaching this past summer in the NAWBL and braved the visa red to stay in the U.S. as a student. That night she celebrated with her teammates, felt a bit more accepted. “I liked it,” junior catcher-first baseman Kevin Murphy said of Fitzgerald’s takeout response. “I liked that she came back and took him out. But to tell you the truth, she was part of the team already.” Indeed she was. Cardello gathered the team in the fall to tell them he was giving Fitzgerald the opportunity to try out. Reaction was generally favorable, a few jokes here and there, but once a couple of captains met up with her in school and invited her to take part in an informal batting practice session at the school’s three year old jewel of a field, there was no more joking. “It’s very different,” senior outfielder Nick Culver said. “We had to sit back and wait and see how she would do. But in batting practice, we could see she could play.” Fitzgerald admitted she was nervous before the Florida trip, because it would be some serious competition. Nervous, but not because she felt she had to earn a spot on the Eagles roster. “After the first day of practice in fall ball, I never felt I had to prove myself,” she said. “I always knew I had to work hard.” It wasn’t an easy choice for Fitzgerald, either. It was a tough decision to leave home for the long haul. But the opportunity to go to college (she’s studying sports management) and play baseball was too good to pass up. “I see her being a change of pace pitcher against some of the stronger teams for a few innings here or there,” Cardello said. “She throws strikes, which in Division III is what it’s all about. She can hit well enough, and has not been overmatched by anybody.” Otherwise, Fitzgerald will see time at second base, although Cardello says she has to get her arm stronger and adjust to the speed of the men’s game where they are faster down the line. Fitzgerald says the speed is definitely something she needed to get used to. Cardello was very frank about how this is all something he’s getting used to as well, even though it was partly his idea. Fitzgerald threw 2-1/3 innings of relief during the trip, plus picked up an RBI single in one of her few at-bats. “There are probably a handful, half a dozen women in (the NAWBL) that can play at this level,” Cardello said. “What she has is the heart and the desire to play baseball. At first it never dawned on me. But halfway through the season, she was talking about staying in the states.” So Cardello suggested she should enroll at DWC, and then he suggested if she did, should could try out for the team. He went back and forth on it for the rest of the summer as he watched her play. “I kind of expected to see an elite female athlete,” he said. “In my mind, if I thought a woman could play college baseball, I’d expect we’d be seeing an elite female athlete. I don’t see her as being an elite athlete. I see her as an excellent baseball player. Great athletes can get away with playing baseball to a certain extent; but you have to be a baseball player to get to the next level.” Still, Cardello says Fitzgerald is no novelty act. She is on the Eagles roster because she belongs there. “If we had 25 uniforms, and she was No. 26, she wouldn’t be on the team,” he said. “I wouldn’t keep her just because she’s a girl. There’s no novelty in this for me. “She’s here because she can play.” And can take a beaning. Which she might have to endure more of as the short collegiate season progresses. “It’s kind of sad,” she said, “to think that a guy is so scared that a girl is going to hit him for a single that he hits somebody. But I hope not. “I did have a couple of players from other teams come up to me and say ‘Hey, I think it’s really cool what you’re doing.’ ” It’s cooler than cool. |