'Next year will be even better': American Legion girls' softball gains momentum in state while finishing 1st season

OXFORD — For nearly 100 years, the American Legion organization has sponsored a baseball program for high school-age boys.

There was no equivalent for girls' softball over the next 90 years until the first department-sanctioned American Legion girls' softball league was created in North Carolina in 2017.

Two years later, movement began to create an American Legion girls' softball program in Massachusetts.

“My daughter originally was in fast-pitch travel ball and would often accompany us when we would go to boys' baseball,” said Jodie Pajak, a Massachusetts American Legion National Executive Committee member. “She asked me one time, ‘How come there is no girls' softball fast pitch for American Legion?’

“So that put the wheels in motion, and it’s taken us about five years to get here.”

Tuesday night, the first Massachusetts American Legion Ladies' Fast-Pitch Softball season ended with Cherry Valley Post 443 finishing 8-0.

“It feels great,” Cherry Valley coach Jessica Parker said after her team's win over Framingham Post 117. “I know there was only four teams in it this year, but I am optimistic that the next couple years we will have at least eight teams with us throughout the state.”

There are only four fast-pitch softball teams in the state under the American Legion umbrella. The three others are Webster-Dudley Post 184, Framingham and Franklin Post 75. However, there are plans for expansion and for the program to go national.

“We definitely do, down toward Plymouth,” said Pajak, who lives in Agawam. “There are quite a few softball programs down there that would love to join us, and more toward Springfield, there are going to be a couple of teams that will pop up there, so it will be a statewide program.”

Pajak also mentioned that there are 17 states that have various stages of American Legion girls' softball already in place.

“This will be a national program in the near future,” Pajak said. “Which will come with all of the travel, regional playoffs et cetera.”

It will essentially become the girls' softball version of how American Legion baseball is set up with districts, state playoffs, regional playoffs and the American Legion World Series.

This would not have been possible without Parker and Sue Sears who were honored prior to the first game Tuesday night for being instrumental in putting together and organizing the first season of American Legion softball.

“Sue Sears, she started this. She runs the Leicester girls' softball league,” Parker said. “Her and I have met through travel softball, and she asked me if I wanted to be part of this tremendous opportunity, and I said yes.”

“It took a lot, but I’m excited that next year will be even better,” Sears said. “There were only four teams this year, but we’re hoping to build on that, everybody is going to be coming back for next year. We are looking to spread the word a little bit more and give the girls a good shot just like the boys. It’s just the same thing, except it's for the girls.”

In Tuesday's first game, Cherry Valley defeated Post 184, 5-2. All of the runs came in the first inning for both teams.

Auburn High sophomore Reece Dickie and Marianapolis Prep freshman Meghan Baca each drove in a run for Webster-Dudley. Dickie connected for an RBI single, and Baca laid down a perfect bunt for a safety squeeze, allowing Shepherd Hill junior Emily Hultgren to come in to score as Post 184 took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Post 443 responded in the bottom half, sending nine batters to the plate and scoring five runs (4 earned). Recent Wachusett Regional graduate Morgan Coutu and Narragansett junior Gianna Manca each had two-run singles. ‘Gansett senior Cassidy Paradis hit a one-out triple that scored Notre Dame Academy senior Erin Connor, who reached on a dropped third strike.

“It is nice,” Coutu said. "The boys get to do it, and we didn’t really acknowledge it when the boys did it, but now that it’s now a girls thing, we know what’s going on, and it is such a nice thing to have for us.”

“Baseball has had Legion for decades,” Parker said. “We just wanted the (same) opportunity for the girls and to give them a chance to have what (the boys) have, and I think this is a great way to start.”

—Contact Ethan Winter at sports@telegram.com.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'Next year will be even better': American Legion girls' softball gains momentum in state while finishing 1st season