Thea Hanscom, 15, was the second youngest of 30 players selected to train at the USA Baseball Women’s National Team Development Program in Washington D.C. earlier this month.
Players ranged from ages 14 to 32, 13 of whom represented the U.S. at the 2016 Women’s Baseball World Cup in Gijang, South Korea.
“They were playing to help the younger players realize what it takes,” said the Hadley resident, who was 14 at the time of the event, held at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.
The program is offered in years when there is no women’s international baseball competition. The national team held the development program to train younger players for future competitions.
“I think it’s really about continuing the opportunity for women to play baseball,” said Amherst resident Ernie May, an assistant coach with the national team.
Hanscom was invited to the program by Lynn resident Donna Mills, a former member of the U.S. national team and current assistant coach.
Mills first heard of Hanscom when she was contacted by a reporter researching girls playing varsity baseball in the state.
The conversation led Mills to search Hanscom’s name online. After seeing YouTube videos of Hanscom, Mills scouted the then-freshman at Hopkins Academy and eventually invited her to the development program.
“It was great. I learned a lot from them,” Hanscom said. “I would definitely say that I was intimidated. I’ve never seen women that talented before, and these women were very, very talented.”
The program ran Aug. 6-14, with some days devoted to drills and body mechanics, and others to playing games. Teams were formed for scrimmages with players from the U.S. and Baseball Canada, which jointly hosted the program with USA Baseball.
Hanscom pitched and earned the win on one game, and got playing time at shortstop and right field in other games.
With the help of coaches and experienced players, Hanscom identified areas where she can improve.
“(They helped me with) making my bat stronger by working on my swing,” Hanscom said. “They also helped me work on my feet when I’m running and the mechanics of my pitching. With pitching, they helped me work on my curveball, the gripping and where I release the ball. Also the stride and building up power in my right leg.”
USA Baseball and Major League Baseball are supporting a program called the Prospect Development Pipeline, which analyzes amateur athletes and tells them what they need to improve on. Each player at the development program was analyzed and sent a packet with their results.
“They test and train them in areas of balance, speed, bat speed, explosiveness, reaction time, vision, everything,” Mills said. “I don’t even have to tell them what to improve on, they’ll just tell them electronically. And for a woman as young as Thea, this is just an amazing thing to have.”
Hanscom is used to being the only girl on baseball teams and said there’s a difference in the way female players interact with each other.
“They would just talk way more, and they were way more encouraging,” Hanscom said. “I thought it was better because they understood what it was like to be playing with all boys.”
Hanscom pitched and played the field on both the varsity and junior varsity baseball teams at Hopkins Academy. Hanscom wants to be a starter for the Golden Hawks next spring. Her other goal is to compete at the international level with USA Baseball.
“I’m going to have to prove myself.” Hanscom said. “It would be amazing to represent the country.”
The next international competition will be the Women’s Baseball World Cup in 2018.
“She has a world of potential,” Mills said. “She has the raw talent. It’s going to come down to how she approaches it, who she seeks out to teach her. To be 15 years old and with where the women’s program is at, if she develops, I see her potentially on the national team.”