Academy Notebook

When the Texas Rangers host the first ever MLB Grit High School Girls Baseball Invitational at Globe Life Park in Arlington and the Texas Rangers Youth Academy at Mercy Street Sports Complex, Presented by Toyota, from March 7 through 10, more than 60 participants will make the trek from all over the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico to participate.

But at least one of the athletes won’t have far to travel.

Dallas native and regular Academy participant Ximena Zamarron will be taking the field in her hometown. (Video of Zamarron discussing the opportunity is available at: https://www.mlb.com/rangers/video/ximena-zamarron-on-mlb-grit/c-2523120083)

“When I first heard about it, I was excited that I got invited,” Xamarron said of the tournament. “There aren’t many opportunities like this. So when it’s here and it’s the first one ever that’s ever been hosted, it’s exciting. I’ve never had an opportunity to do this with other girls from across the country.”

A freshman at Hillcrest High School, Zamarron grew up learning to play baseball from her uncle.

“I was just brought up playing baseball. As I got older, like 8, there weren’t really any teams that had girls’ baseball, so I would always have to play with the guys. My uncle had his own team and we would play there, and then I had to play softball because there weren’t any girls’ baseball,” Zamarron recalled.

The infielder has represented the Academy at the Jennie Finch Classic in Washington D.C. as part of the 2018 All-Star Game festivities in July and traveled to Austin as part of the Academy’s RBI All-Star softball team in the RBI Southwest Regional later that month. She also traveled to Vero Beach for the Elite Development Invitational in July.

While Zamarron enjoys both baseball and softball, she points out that they’re distinctively unique sports.

“Everything is different. The swings are different – baseball you have to swing up so it can go further. Softball you kind of have a flat, straight swing. And the speed is different,” Zamarron said. “They’ve always been fun to me. I always enjoy playing them both.”

For Zamarron, the difference between baseball and softball highlight the value of MLB’s initiative for girls in baseball. Not only does it give girls a chance to be seen by baseball scouts, it also gives them a chance to play a game they may enjoy more than softball.

“This is important to get everybody to open their eyes and see that women and girls are playing baseball, too, not just men,” Zamarron said. “When people see opportunities like this, other girls that were shy to play baseball because people were like, ‘oh it’s just for guys, I can’t play that.’ But maybe they’re like, ‘since they’re playing it, I want to do it, too.’ More people will end up doing it and it will change people’s points of view.

“I just think this is really important because there are girls that are probably better than the guys, so they can get a chance to go to MLB,” she added.

Ximena Zamarron in an RBI game at the Rangers Youth Academy.

More on MLB Grit

MLB announced additional details for the inaugural event on Thursday. Participants will include high school baseball players from 21 states, Washington D.C., Canada, and Puerto Rico, including players who competed with Team USA, Canada, and Puerto Rico in the Women’s Baseball World Cup in August 2018.

And the group will hear from special speakers from the Rangers including FOX Sports Southwest field reporter Emily Jones, Executive Vice President and General Counsel Katie Pothier, and Senior Software Developer Kim Eskew.

The tournament joins the returning Trailblazer Series and Girls Breakthrough Series as part of Major League Baseball’s third consecutive year of creating programming designed to grow the area of girls in baseball.

The MLB Grit game schedule is below:

MLB Grit Game Schedule Date Time Teams Field

3/8

1:30 p.m.

Team 3 vs. Team 4

Globe Life Park

3/8

5:00 p.m.

Team 1 vs. Team 2

Globe Life Park

3/9

8:15 a.m.

Team 2 vs. Team 3