Elise Berger has always loved baseball. From her earliest memories of playing tee ball to starring at Champlain Valley Union High School to getting the ball for two of the US Women's National Team's most important games at the WBSC Women's World Cup group stage earlier this year, baseball has always been a part of the young hurler's life.

"My heart's always been drawn to baseball," the 18-year-old Berger told MLB.com during a break in her high school classes recently. "I've always loved playing. But it probably wasn't until I was 9, 10, 11 that I really started going with it, because when we were nine, that's when I started kid's pitch."

Now, she'll continue to play the sport she loves as the right-handed pitcher has committed to playing baseball at Division III Bard College next fall. Berger is the latest player to stick with the game, joining USWNT teammates like the Staten Island Ferry Hawks' Kelsie Whitmore or Brown University's Olivia Pichardo who continue to play baseball as they move up the ladder despite the long odds and other challenges as the only woman on otherwise all men's teams.

"My goal, ever since I was little, has been to play college baseball. It's always been a dream of mine," Berger said. "So to have an opportunity in which that was a reality, that was definitely something I knew I wanted to pursue."

Berger had actually been on Bard's radar ever since she was a sophomore -- a rarity in DIII sports.

"The first time I was really diving in and seeing her play was at our [Bard College baseball] camp," head coach Andy Salvatore said. "She would have been a rising sophomore at that time, just going into junior year. I have a very vivid memory of it and she just pitched really well at that time. Just the way that recruiting works at the Division Three level, it's rare for someone to be a year behind the people that we're normally recruiting to jump out. She did that for us."

"It had nothing to do with her being a girl," associate head coach Justin Gomez, who worked closely with Berger during the recruitment process, echoed. "She flat out competed. She went out there and threw three pitches for strikes and had her head up and that's what we look for. From that day, we were really excited."

Armed with focus and a great fastball, the otherwise soft-spoken Berger has always stood out on the baseball field, no matter where she has been. Ever since her first appearance at the Trailblazer Series -- a girls baseball development event put on by MLB -- when she was just 12 years old, Berger has made a name for herself out on the field, seeming to bely her age at every turn.

"She's an incredible kid and player," Veronica Alvarez, the manager of the US Women's National Team, said. "I almost forget how young she is."

Since that first event, Berger has been on hand for nearly every MLB event, including the Breakthrough Series and Elite Development Invitational. It's a level of devotion to the sport that has helped turn Berger not just into a star for her school and country, but already a mentor for the younger players coming up behind her.

"I love to coach and work with younger girls. It's definitely something I love doing," Berger said. "When we went to Roy Hobbs [Baseball tournament], I went with the Evolution [baseball team] this fall. And we had I think an age range from, like, 14-to-32 on my team. It's quite an age range, but it's cool to talk and be with some of the younger girls."

Before she joins Bard in the fall, though, Berger still has to finish high school -- she actually had her basketball tryout on the day that we spoke on the phone -- and then has the Women's Baseball World Cup finals in the summer. There, Berger will be expected to face some of the best women's ballplayers in the world, as the U.S. looks to unseat Japan and win its first gold medal since 2006.

It's a plan that Alvarez has seemingly had in place ever since meeting Berger at those early events. She first brought the pitcher out to play in the USA's 2022 friendly series against Canada and then gave her the ball in two crucial games earlier this summer.

"She's so focused on her goals. So focused on trying to be as good as possible, and as a coach, that's such a wonderful thing to see," Alvarez said. "She'll stand next to me or to another coach and just listen -- because she's also not a big talker. She'll just listen and really take all the information and she'll ask the appropriate questions. It's fun to see the wheels turning in her mind and then see her go on field and perform."

With the future stretching out before her, Berger knows that there's plenty of hard work ahead as one of the women who are blazing a trail on the baseball field. 

"One thing that's not shown is a lot of the behind the scenes work," Berger said about her women's baseball teammates. "We have to work a lot harder just to keep up with the guys. Every single woman you see on the National Team are the hardest workers you will ever meet. They are the people who are waking up early to go to lift. Everything they're doing is to get to play with the guys and get better."

Her coaches at Bard are excited to bring her into the fold, and help her grow as a person and player -- all while making sure she feels like a part of the team. 

"So, for instance, I say 'fellas' a lot and it's not 'fellas' and Elise," Gomez said. "Being able to change my verbiage to 'Hey everyone' -- these are little things we can do to make her feel included and that is stuff we as a coaching staff are working on. We think that she can go out here and really compete, and she's going to earn the respect of not only her peers, but just people in general that may think there's not a place for women in baseball."

Alvarez knows the importance of Berger's place in the game and she's excited what this next step means for the future of women in the sport. 

"We're just making believers every chance that we get in the public eye or somebody sees us or gets to experience us on the field doing what we love," Alvarez said. "Getting these players like Elise out there, Olivia [Pichardo] and Kelsie [Whitmore] and as many as we can get that are great representations of women in baseball, it's just going to continue to grow and spread that web of believers. 

"To get more people like that out there is only going to make it a better future for women's baseball."