Olivia Pichardo becomes first woman to homer in NY wood bat league

July 24th, 2023

Olivia Pichardo has had a lot of groundbreaking firsts in the past year.

Last fall, the 19-year-old became the first woman to ever make a Division I baseball roster when she joined the team at Brown University.

A few months later, in March, she became the first woman to play for a Division I team.

And this summer, while playing in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League -- a wood bat circuit that's featured future MLB All-Stars like Corbin Burnes and Josiah Gray -- she's produced another first. In the best way possible.

During Game 2 of a doubleheader in Westhampton over the weekend, Pichardo cranked a dinger to deep right field -- the first by a female player in HCBL history.

Her Sag Harbor teammates couldn't hold back their excitement, celebrating like she had just hit a walk-off home run in the World Series.

This was just days after Pichardo pitched in the league's All-Star Game. She's given up zero earned runs in four regular-season appearances this year. Her coach recently told the East Hampton Star she's "one of our better arms out of the bullpen.”

Pretty awesome for a kid from Queens who's routinely been told to give up on the sport she loves. It all seems to just fuel her even more.

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Matt Monagan is a writer for MLB.com.