Kelsie Whitmore of the U.S. Women’s National Team made her first hit for the Sonoma Stompers on Wednesday, making history as the first woman to make a hit in professional baseball in decades.
It's not the first time a woman has gotten a professional hit,
USA Today noted. Women played professionally during World War II, and three women played in the Negro League during the 1950s. But it is a historic moment for baseball after the Independent League team signed Whitmore and teammate Stacy Piagno earlier this month.
General Manager Theo Fightmaster said the team wanted to give women an opportunity to play against men and receive professional training.
After Wednesday's hit, teammate Joel Carranza got the ball from the umpire and took it to Whitmore's parents, who were sitting in the stands,
MLB.com reported.
"A lot of the guys were asking why I wasn't jumping up and down. My thought process was 'That's just one hit. I need more,'" Whitmore told MLB.com.
On Friday, the team made another historic move when it signed catcher Anna Kimbrell to the team. Kimbrell and Whitmore will form the first female battery in pro baseball history.
“Anna’s success at the national level with Team USA, her experience catching both Stacy and Kelsie, and her experience playing wood-bat, men’s league baseball made her a natural fit for this team and this project,” Fightmaster said,
according to the Sonoma Index-Tribune.
The three U.S. Women’s National Team stars are set to play in the 2016 Women’s Baseball World Cup in South Korea in September.
The team posted a video of Whitmore's historic hit on Twitter.
Many Twitter users cheered the historic hit.
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