(Seguin) — An eight-year-old Seguin girl who plays catcher in Seguin Boys Little League baseball is looking to play with an East Coast based all-girls 10 and under baseball team during a tournament in Kentucky in July.
Moira Sharp plays for the Rivercats little league boys baseball team in Seguin. Recently, she was offered a roster spot to play with the 10-Under Philly Girls Baseball team. The team is based in Philadelphia, but extends player invitations to girls all over the country.
Her mother Susann Whitecotton says her daughter prefers to play baseball as opposed to softball unlike most girls her age. She says as her daughter has gotten older, she has expressed more interest in playing on a all-girls team. This summer, Whitecotton contacted an organization to help link Moira up with an all-girls team.
“I reached out to the organization called Baseball for All, and (I was) just looking for the summer for her (…) to meet up with other girls that played,” Whitecotton said. “And within an hour Justine Siegal, the founder of the organization, emailed me back and said, ‘I have a team out of Philadelphia that needs players to fill their roster spots.'”
It was then that Whitecotton was put in touch with the head coach of the Philly Girls Baseball team and after a phone conversation with the coach, her daughter was invited to join the squad. Whitecotton feels the opportunity gives Moira a chance to join a baseball team and just play ball without the stigma of being “that girl” on the team.
Moira, or MoMo as she prefers to be called, has been playing little league baseball since she was four years old. She says baseball is a challenge for her but she says she practices a lot and has gotten a great deal of help from her friend and coach, Jeremy Farley.
“He’s been teaching me how to bat correctly and how to position my feet (at) catcher so I don’t over miss a ball and he’s been teaching me how to put my catcher’s gear on,” Moira said. “And it’s been really, really hard for me so he basically volunteered to help me.”
With all her practice and the help from her volunteer coach, Moira has future dreams of making history playing baseball for her favorite team in Seguin.
“Never in my life, I’ve never seen a girl on the (Seguin) River Monsters team and I want to be the first girl on the River Monsters team.”
Moira just finished 2nd grade at Weinert Elementary. She is an A-student with her favorite subject being math. MoMo is a Brownie Girl Scout. She is a member of Troop 1450. She is also a competitive dancer for Operation Dance at Second Story Dance and Company.
Moira hopes to play with the Philly Girls Baseball team at the Baseball For All Nationals tournament in Elizabeth, Kentucky July 12th through 16th. Her mother is seeking financial help to get her daughter to join the team at the tournament.
If you would like to help MoMo in her pursuit of playing in the tournament, you can contribute to a GoFundMe account set up to help with her expenses. You can search “Help Mo play baseball” on GoFundMe or you can follow the link here.