'There’s a market for this': BFA continues to grow women's game

The Western Washington University women’s club baseball team posed with the champions banner and medals with pride. The program captured the 2024 championship in its first appearance at the Baseball for All’s Women’s College Club Championship.

Baseball for All (BFA) is a girls’ and women’s baseball nonprofit created to build gender equity by making opportunities for girls to play, coach and lead in the sport. The BFA created the championships for collegiate women’s baseball clubs to compete at a high level.

The number of teams participating in the event recently at the MLB Youth Academy in Compton doubled to six since the event began in 2022, providing proof that women’s baseball continues to grow.

“There’s a market for this,” BFA founder Justine Siegal said. “There are young women who did not feel they had a chance to play baseball and now the opportunity is coming to their campus.”

She’s right.

• Pioneering coach Siegal eager to pave way for girls

Carly Mitchell had not considered a career in baseball when she began college in Washington D.C. Like many girls, Mitchell played baseball until she had to switch to softball. When she transferred to Occidental College shortly after her mother’s death, Mitchell looked for opportunities to work in the sport that provided her comfort -- baseball.

Six months after Mitchell began working with the baseball program, she longed to return to the field. Mitchell connected with Siegal not long after she experienced the longing and was inspired to start a women’s baseball club team at Occidental.

Founding a women’s baseball team provided skills for Mitchell to use in her current position as an associate analyst in player development with the Giants. She received support from BFA as she applied for jobs in baseball.

“[BFA] becomes like a family, and if you ever need help with anything, just trying to get a job or looking over a resume or being a reference, the network is so strong,” Mitchell said. “Justine helped me a lot and I was able to get an interview with the Giants at the Winter Meetings down in San Diego and they offered me a part-time summer job.”

Similarly, BFA also helped Giants' fundraising and events intern Josie Powell. Powell founded the women’s baseball club at UC Berkeley, and going through that process, she began to see a future working in baseball.

“I think that whole experience has really just shown me my own talents and skills that I didn’t even know I had,” Powell said.

The growth of women’s baseball and women working in baseball has been a wide-ranging effort. MLB supports both girls softball and girls baseball, holding multiple events, including the Trailblazer Series, Breakthrough Series and several MLB GRIT events that identify top talent throughout the country.

BFA is a ground-breaking, independently-run organization that has created a community for women who are passionate about the cause, no matter how long they’ve been in the sport.

Maggie Gallagher currently coaches the women’s club baseball team at the University of Washington. She became the first female president of the men’s baseball club in 2019, before she was approached by the founders of the women’s club team with a coaching opportunity.

Without a doubt in her mind, she said yes.

Gallagher coached the University of Washington women’s team to back-to-back titles in the first two years of the tournament. Her success as a coach and passionate advocacy made her a perfect fit to coach one of the many 2023 MLB GRIT teams -- an event designed specifically for female athletes (18 and under) to showcase their talent and ability as baseball players.

Gallagher impressed baseball and softball development coordinator Natalia Reynoso and was invited to coach at the 2024 Trailblazer Series, which is currently taking place in Vero Beach, Fla.

“It’s such an amazing feeling that there’s other people who have the same goals and mindset,” Gallagher said. “It’s been a bit of a blessing to see from the beginning and hopefully it continues down the road to see.”

As the sport continues to grow, Siegal wants to show the next generation that baseball is also a women’s game in any capacity.

“[It’s] about letting girls know that they’re perfect as they are and baseball belongs to them, too,” Siegal said. “It includes letting these girls and athletes know that they can keep going.”