Standout female athletes embracing change at EDI

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Throughout the lore of baseball, change and evolution have been constant factors in a game that dates back to its 19th-century origins.

In the past three decades, change has come in many forms on the diamond. Light-hitting catchers with strong arms have moved out to the pitcher’s mound. Infielders have become outfielders and vice versa. Struggling pitchers like the Treasure Coast’s Rick Ankiel -- who hails from Fort Pierce just 10 miles south of the Jackie Robinson Training Complex -- have stepped off the mound and patrolled the outfield with above-average arms.

The game itself has undergone an evolution, which arrives disguised as change. Bases are bigger to improve stealing. A pitch timer was instituted to expedite the game and help keep fans focused. The shift came and went, both evolving and subsequently changing its way right out of the sport -- for now at least.

But for Caitlyn Walker, change has taken on a bigger form than a position change or a new rule.

One of approximately 64 girls in baseball camp over the weekend at the JRTC -- which hosted the Elite Development Invitational -- Walker is making a change from softball to baseball.

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“They are definitely two very different experiences,” said the 16-year-old, a second baseman from Gary, Indiana. “They're obviously supposed to be kind of the same experience. It felt the same, but there were different aspects that were different.

“[Softball] wasn't as fast-paced, or it didn't feel as fast-paced. You were always on your feet but it didn't feel like back-to-back [action]. With the baseball one though, everything's really fast-paced and there's never downtime, which I think is good, and the energy is definitely different. It's all positive energy, but at the softball one, there's a lot more talking and cheering. Here, it's more just support.”

Some might view the two sports as nearly identical, but they are not.

Longer basepaths, larger fields, leading off, and pickoff attempts all add some nuance that differentiates baseball from softball.

A former softball star at the University of Arizona, Jenny Dalton-Hill is on the USA Baseball Women's National Team as an assistant coach to manager Veronica Alvarez.

Dalton-Hill also won a bronze medal in 2010 in the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Venezuela while playing first base for the national team, and she knows what it takes to move between the sports.

In 1996, she played for the Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-female professional baseball club that competed from 1994-97.

“You know, the games of softball and baseball are always compared as very similar sports, but the skill set required to play both of them is pretty unique,” said Dalton-Hill, an EDI instructor over the weekend. “To play softball, you have to be quick in your transitions. You have to think the game a little bit faster. There's not as much time in the game of softball to be able to make those decisions and react in the game. ...

“[In baseball] you've got more time, you can shuffle through your throws, you can think about what you need to do a little bit more between pitches. And so the skill set required -- while it's hit, throw, catch -- is very different mentally when you change the mentality going from baseball to softball. It's hard to flip that switch.”

Tamara Holmes, who coached Walker as a member of Team Navy at the EDI, said the dual-sport athlete is to be commended for making the necessary adjustments.

“It's more of learning the nuances of baseball, like where you should be as a cutoff, where you should be in the field,” Holmes said. “So again, a lot of credit to her because not only is she learning that in softball, but then to come here in baseball, probably not know anyone, be so new and take in all these things, which is a lot of information, a lot of growth in, in the past few days.

“To be able to show and shine in the end is great.”

Walker can find a role model in Kelsie Whitmore, a two-time medal winner for the Women’s National Team for whom she played from 2014-19.

A former softball star at Cal State-Fullerton where she earned the Big West Conference’s Player of the Year Award in 2021, the 24-year-old San Diego native is in her second season playing for the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball’s Staten Island FerryHawks.

“I’m very thankful to get these opportunities to help mentor and coach these girls,” Whitmore said. “Any way I can be a role model to someone and be helpful, whether I can inspire or motivate them. There were females that I had to look up to, but I wasn’t able to relate to them. I looked up to my dad and big leaguers.

“I’d like to be someone for them that I wish I had, and be a resource for them.”