Atta-girl! Female baseball player from Merrick reaches new heights

Baseball has been a part of Olivia Roberto’s life she since was three and would play catch with her brother Peter after his games. Now an eighth-grade student at Merrick Avenue Middle School, Olivia is the only girl on both her school’s team and a community team called the Oil City Bandits.

Olivia excelled this year when she played at an inaugural MLB Trailblazer Series and joined the nationwide team, Girl’s Travel Baseball. Now the 13-year-old is gearing up for her next challenge: earning a spot on the Calhoun High School junior varsity team.

Olivia’s father, Peter, said that many girls Olivia’s age chose to play softball for a number of reasons, including that the sport offers more accessible scholarship opportunities than baseball. Olivia, however, said that she prefers baseball because “the game is faster and more competitive.”

Olivia said that she has persisted through some discrimination on the field, recalling a time in which she struck out a male player and he shouted, “Go back to softball, you don’t belong here.” Olivia laughed though, and said that heckling has only bothered her when it came from parents. “Kids are just being kids,” she said. “Adults should be mature.”

Ryan Gorecki, Olivia’s coach on the Oil City Bandits, said that he doesn’t see her leaving the game any time soon. “Her mechanics are flawless,” he added. “She could compete with the boys at the highest levels [of the sport].”

During the winter months, the Oil City Bandits host a 10-week training program with professional instructors like MLB scout Pat Shortt. After Shortt saw Olivia pitch this year, he invited her to compete at an inaugural Trailblazer Series for female players hosted by MLB and USA Baseball. In April, Olivia traveled to Los Angeles where she played at the three-day tournament and trained alongside Robin Wallace, the first woman to play college baseball and the first to play high school baseball in Alabama.

Coaches at the Trailblazer were impressed by Olivia’s playing and invited her to join Girl’s Travel Baseball, a nationwide team with the goal of sending players to compete at the Pan-Am Games with the Women’s National Team. GTB competes in six tournaments throughout the year and Olivia played her first two weeks ago.

When it comes to her milestones as a female baseball player, Olivia said, “I don’t really want to stand out. I just want to be treated equally.”