This star throws like a girl

And she made the Merrick Avenue baseball team

Posted

Olivia Roberto, a Merrick Avenue Middle School seventh-grader, was 3 when she started attending her brother Peter’s baseball games. She sat silently, observing from the sidelines. From that point on, she was hooked, mesmerized, by baseball, said her father, Peter Sr.

Before long, Olivia, now 12, was playing the game, and was the only girl on several teams that she has competed for over the past decade. Her father is her Little League coach.

Her love for the game has only grown over the years. The speed and unpredictability of the ball thrill her, she said.

“The ball could be hit anywhere,” Olivia said. “You don’t know when it’s going to come to you. It’s so fun trying to hit the ball and get on base, stealing, leading. If you’re pitching, you just want to get out of the inning. You just want to be throwing strikes, and when you throw strikes, you feel great.”

This spring, Olivia became the first girl to earn a spot on a Bellmore-Merrick baseball team over the past 25 years –– perhaps ever –– when she made the MAMS seventh-grade squad, according to the Central District athletic director, Eric Caballero, and the former director, Saul Lerner, who retired last spring.

“Olivia stands for everything that we, as educators, want our kids to become,” said Caballero. “It’s difficult enough being a teenage girl, let alone a teenage girl playing a boys’ sport. Not only has she reached outside of her comfort zone, she’s excelled.”

To join the boys’ team, Olivia first had to complete a Selective Classification Test –– the same physical fitness exam that an eighth-grade boy who wants to play on a high school team must pass. The test requires crunches, push-ups, a shuttle run and a one-mile run in under 8 minutes, 23 seconds.

After the test, Olivia was allowed to try out for the seventh-grade team. None of the boys were required to pass the SCT, which is required of girls by Section VIII rules, according to Caballero.

Page 1 / 3