The Yorkton Cardinals will be making history this coming season. The club is pleased to announce that they have signed the first female player in Westrern Major Baseball League history, as Ghazaleh Sailors has recently committed to the Cardinals for the upcoming summer.
Ghazaleh (Oz-a-lay) Sailors is currently a senior at San Marcos High School in San Marcos, California. She calls Santa Barbara her hometown, and is a member of the San Marcos High School baseball team. Sailors is a right-handed pitcher but should provide versatility to the Cardinals squad, with her ability to play the infield.
Ghazaleh has also accepted a collegiate scholarship for the 2012 collegiate season to play baseball at the University of Maine- Presque Isle, who compete in the NAIA Sunrise Conference.
Sailors has an abundance of experience already as a member of the U.S. National Women's Baseball Team that competed in Venezuela in 2010 at the World Women's Baseball Championship which was the first time since 2004 that Team USA beat Team Canada at that tournament. Ghazaleh was one of eighteen girls selected to this team out of over 800 women who tried out. Since this competition is held once every two years, Ghazaleh will be able to spend the summer of 2011 in the WMBL.
Sailors will again represent Team USA next year at the 2012 World Women's Baseball Championship. Next year’s tournament will be held in Edmonton, Alberta, home of the Edmonton Prospects of the WMBL.
Sailors will make history as the first female player in the WMBL, but this is nothing new to her. Just days ago, on Saturday, March 5th, in a game against Birmingham High School in Lake Balboa, California, Sailors was a part of the first game in California history with two female starting pitchers. Sailors started for San Marcos, and Marti Sementelli got the start for Birmingham, both are teammates on the U.S. National Women’s Team.
Ghazaleh will attend her high school graduation on June 2nd and will be joining the Cardinals on June 3rd when they play their first road game in Regina against the Red Sox.
“We are very pleased to be able to give Ghazaleh an opportunity to further her career in the WMBL,” said Cardinals President and Head Coach Bill Sobkow. “I was flattered that she turned to us for the next step in her career.”
“We are very proud to be the first WMBL team to have a female player, and see this as a major step for both the WMBL and other female players, who have Ghazaleh to look up to. Ghazaleh is a great young lady, and we hope the Cardinals can offer her a beneficial experience on and off the field, in her summer in Yorkton.”
Sailors offers her thoughts on spending a summer in the WMBL.
“It is a true privilege to have this opportunity to further a career that according to some, shouldn't be happening. It is an honor to take my journey in baseball to the next level, and I want to thank the good people of Yorkton for granting me this opportunity."
6 comments:
Wouldn't Ila Borders be considered the league's first female player? I know the league was still called the SMBL back when she played in Swift Current but wasn't that league a forerunner to the WMBL?
Good question. Good memory too.
It is International Women's Day, after all.
Is this a joke? Unless she has one helluva fastball, she will get smoked out there.
the first WMBL team to have a female player, and see this as a major step for both the WMBL and other female players, who have Ghazaleh to look up to. Ghazaleh is a great chaussures air max young lady, and we hope the Cardinals can offer her a beneficial experience on and off the field, in her summer in Yorkton.”
I was flattered that she turned to us for the next step in her career.”
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