‘She must be the real deal’: How Olivia Pichardo defied the doubters and made baseball history
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Joon Lee, ESPN
FOR MONTHS, BROWN University head baseball coach Grant Achilles was asked when Olivia Pichardo might take the field and become the first woman to play in Division I. National media attended every game hoping to catch a glimpse of history — an unusual amount of attention for a baseball team typically covered by the student newspaper.
Pichardo, an outfielder and a pitcher who has played baseball since she was 5, had shined on stages from Little League to PONY baseball to MLB’s Trailblazer Series and all the way to a stint with the USA Baseball Women’s National Team in 2022. But when it was announced that she had made the Brown Bears as a walk-on, interest had perhaps never been higher.
On March 18, Pichardo pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 10-1 Brown loss to the Bryant University Bulldogs in Providence, Rhode Island. On a first-pitch fastball from Bryant righty M.T. Morrissey, Pichardo grounded out sharply to first base. The at-bat would be her only appearance of her freshman season. The moment was indeed historic, but the lone at-bat also fueled Pichardo’s critics, who questioned whether her addition to the team amounted to a publicity stunt.
“The challenge was being able to stay focused and stay true with some of the outside noise and distractions and stay supportive of each other throughout,” Achilles said he told Pichardo and her teammates before Pichardo’s appearance. “Just because somebody has access to a keyboard or a social media account doesn’t mean that they’re somebody you should listen to.”
Pichardo has been drowning out critics just like those for her entire life: “Random chirps from parents or players in the stands or things that I’ve been told that people have said about me,” she said in an interview before the season. “It just bounces off of me — which is not an invitation for anyone to test.”
For most 18-year-olds, an Ivy League course load would be overwhelming enough. Add to that the growing pains that come with adjusting to Division I baseball. And to top it all off, Pichardo faces increased scrutiny due to her unprecedented success as a woman breaking barriers. All of this while trying to improve on the baseball field and earn more playing time next season.
“I feel like I’ve already had my midlife crisis through baseball,” Pichardo said. “It’s not a game like basketball where you can make up for a mistake by scoring another basket. You need to wait your turn for a chance to redeem yourself, keep a short-term memory, move past things and try not to let it be in the back of your mind.”
FOR AS LONG as the Pichardos can remember, the most frequent question about Olivia on the diamond was never about her love for the sport, her ambitions on the field or her favorite players.
When are you going to switch to softball?
When Max Pichardo started Olivia out on the Elmjack baseball fields by LaGuardia Airport in Astoria, Queens, softball wasn’t a thought in his mind. Max grew up in the Dominican Republic, and for him, baseball was everything. With his wife, Monita, who is Chinese American, working as a recruiter for the finance and insurance corporation AIG, Max focused his time as a full-time stay-at-home dad, raising Olivia and her sister, Nirvana. They gravitated toward playing with Batman and Superman action figures over Barbie dolls.
As a kid, Olivia often picked up the family’s Spider-Man baseball bat over other toys. That’s part of what led Max to sign up Olivia for Little League. During the summers, they often skipped lunch to keep playing, practicing everything from hitting to fielding to pitching. He signed on as a coach in the nearby Forest Hills youth baseball league, but by the end of Olivia’s first season, questions had already started popping up about her future. When one woman helping run the league pushed Max to switch Olivia to softball, he resisted.
“I took a lot of issues with another adult trying to tell my kid what to do,” Max said. “For somebody who doesn’t know my kid to presume they know what’s best to do or based on some gender roles society has tried to shape — get out of my face with that.”
The questions kept popping up from level to level. As the jump from Little League to PONY Baseball loomed, people doubted Olivia’s ability, noting that the boys would begin going through puberty. The sentiment from others often carried a tone of It’s been a good ride; I hope you enjoyed it. When she continued playing PONY Baseball and succeeding, others voiced concerns about whether Olivia could keep up in high school baseball.
“People kept moving the goalposts about what they were saying about a girl playing baseball,” Max said.
As Olivia got older, the infrastructure around women’s baseball grew. She participated in the Trailblazer Series, a tournament launched by MLB and USA Baseball in 2017 for girls, and the MLB GRIT program, designed for girls 18 and younger to showcase their abilities and receive pro evaluation from scouts. Justine Siegal — who became the first woman coach employed by an MLB team in 2015 for the Oakland Athletics — met a 14-year-old Pichardo through these programs. Pichardo’s focus on the field and where her family envisioned her baseball career taking her became clear very quickly.
“The combination of Olivia’s composure, her presence, the confidence she has and how hard she worked in actively engaging within school, it was clearly a winning combination,” Siegal said.
By seventh grade, Pichardo made the high school boys’ varsity team, and in 2018, 2019 and 2021, MLB invited her to participate in the Breakthrough Series, a program established for developing young players, both male and female. In July 2022, Pichardo played with the USA Baseball Women’s National Team as a pitcher and an outfielder alongside Kelsie Whitmore, the first woman to play in the Atlantic League.
As her college search began in the summer of 2021, Pichardo was looking for a school that met the standards of a 5.2 high school GPA where she might also be able to play ball.
“Olivia wasn’t going to sacrifice her academics to find a fit to play baseball,” said Elizabeth Benn, who met Pichardo while she completed a 2022 internship with the New York Mets. Benn is the Mets’ director of major league operations, the highest ranking woman baseball operations employee in franchise history. “She was going to end up at a D-I school or an Ivy League school, but we needed to see if a coach would be receptive to having her on the team.”
In 2021, Pichardo enrolled in baseball camps for Harvard, Columbia and Princeton, hoping to get in front of coaches. Again, she and her father heard questions about whether she would be able to compete with men hoping to play Division I baseball. The continued pushback led her father to stream college baseball regularly, hoping to scope out the potential competition for a roster spot.
“I saw people dropping fly balls and missing cutoff throws,” Max Pichardo said. “People make it seem like it’s a sport made for the gods, but I see kids playing baseball.”
During her senior year in high school, Olivia Pichardo made contact with Brown’s coaching staff about trying to walk on to the team; and when she was accepted last spring, Coach Achilles and Pichardo started a longer conversation about what that might look like. After a tryout Achilles called “the most complete” he has seen as a head coach, Pichardo became the first woman to make a Division I baseball roster.
“I wasn’t telling myself the odds,” Pichardo said. “I was just telling myself that I was going to make the team. I wasn’t going to let doubt creep into my mind.”
She quickly proved to teammates she could keep up with them, swinging on time to 90 mph fastballs during the team’s first intrasquad game and showing off the zip of her throws while playing catch.
“She’s not looking for someone to think it’s OK to not throw as hard or run as fast,” her father said. “She just wants someone to treat her like a person.”
THOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH teammates on the Bears were crucial to Pichardo in her first season. During an intrasquad game early in the spring, Pichardo made an error in the outfield, the type of physical mistake that happens at times. But then it snowballed. Senior outfielder Derian Morphew — a regular throwing partner of Pichardo — noticed the physical mistake started turning into mental errors, one bleeding into another.
“You could see how much pressure she puts on herself,” Morphew said. “I told her a couple of times, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. There’s a lot of attention on you and a lot of negative feedback, but the biggest thing is to try to block it out and keep improving.”
That negativity can reach uncontrollable levels. When the Boston Red Sox invited Pichardo to throw the first pitch at Fenway Park on Asian American Pacific Islander Night on May 3, her teammates encouraged her to throw as hard as she could and not think about getting the ball over the plate. When she did just that, the ball nearly skipped past utility infielder Rob Refsnyder, and it ended up in the right-handed batter’s box. Video of the pitch went viral on Twitter, with criticism getting so hostile that NESN television turned off replies for the tweet.
“The people that are skeptical are usually people that don’t even play baseball or never made it to this level,” Morphew said. “I just laugh it off because the people that I play with in summer ball from other Division I programs think it’s awesome for her, how she must be the real deal.”
Last week, in between study sessions for her final exams, Pichardo and Achilles met to recap her freshman campaign. Brown’s season did not go as anticipated, finishing 9-12 within the conference and failing to qualify for this past weekend’s Ivy League tournament. Pichardo’s single in-game appearance fell short of her own expectations too, according to Achilles.
“She expects perfection with what she can control,” Achilles said. “It’s probably to a fault at that point where she can probably take a step away and revisit things the next day.”
Her teammates saw her growth firsthand. Morphew noticed the strides she made in her confidence both at the plate and in the field.
“She became more relaxed, you could just see it,” Morphew said. “Her throwing, her stance at the plate. She looked like a more confident baseball player by the end of it.”
Achilles did not commit to giving Pichardo more playing time in 2024, but he points out that her freshman season aligned with the typical experience of a walk-on. He said the things Pichardo needs to improve — increased awareness on the offensive and defensive side of the game, more consistency through her swing and continuing to add strength in the weight room — are mostly the same as the team’s other freshmen. And when it comes to the critics who point to her roster spot as a stunt, he dismisses them.
“If they want to speak about it one way or the other, they can show up to more of our practices and games to watch what actually goes on,” Achilles said. “It’s really beyond ludicrous some of the things people who have no business commenting on, stuff they have no idea about.”
Her teammates remind Pichardo that backlash she faces often has nothing to do with baseball.
“You see the comments, and we remind her that she’s the first female to ever play the game in Division I baseball,” Morphew said. “Brush off all of the negativity, it does not matter, because you are the first one to do it. And that says something.”
At the end of the season, Achilles reminded Pichardo of the progress she made during her first campaign, reminding her she is more than just a headline or a figurehead or an on-field trailblazer.
“You’re not a video game,” Achilles said. “The transition is hard, and you’re a person too. You’re not valued by just your performance. That’s such a transactional way to look at life. We want to win, we want our players to perform at their highest, but they’re more than who they are between the white lines.”
Pichardo took a deep breath and smiled.
“You’re right,” Pichardo said. “It’s not going to be perfect.”
It’s in these moments she reminds herself why she loves the sport that helped put her in a position for ever-increasing scrutiny.
“Your attitude really does matter,” Pichardo said. “You can’t throw a fit after you strike out. Sometimes you feel like you’re the best baseball player to ever exist. Everyone hits a point where you hit a wall, and it seems like you’re swinging at strikes but not making much contact. You just need to fix your attitude and keep going.”
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Tom Luginbill
The Elite 11 Finals annually spotlight the nation’s top high school quarterbacks, offering a firsthand look at how the next wave of signal-callers stacks up against elite competition.
With most participants already committed, it’s a valuable window into how these prospects will fit into their future college systems and translate to the next level. Here are the top 10 committed quarterbacks attending the event later this month ranked by system fit.
ESPN 300 ranking: 8
Tennessee’s scheme is plug-and-play friendly and fits Brandon’s big arm and sneaky mobility. There’s a clear trend emerging in Knoxville when it comes to quarterback traits in terms of stature, athleticism and arm strength. Brandon checks all three boxes. He’s very similar to former Vols standout Hendon Hooker and is further along developmentally than Hooker was at Brandon’s age. Though not quite as polished as Nico Iamaleava coming out of high school, Brandon throws a great deep ball, which Tennessee coach Josh Heupel requires from all his quarterbacks. By the time he arrives on campus, it’s likely at least one quarterback currently on the Tennessee roster will have hit the transfer portal.
One week from today the @Elite11 Finals get underway ⏳
UCReport will have on-site coverage. Looking forward to seeing plenty of high-level quarterbacks and evaluating how they’ll fit in their college system.
Among those is 5-star Tennessee commit Faizon Brandon who was… pic.twitter.com/kXFh2QojIJ
– Billy Tucker (@TheUCReport) June 10, 2025
ESPN 300 ranking: N/A — three-star
Duke offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer is looking for a run-pass option quarterback with consistent accuracy and high-level production in the run game. Walker is that guy. He’s strikingly similar to Darian Mensah, the quarterback Duke brought in via the transfer portal, only Walker has a stronger arm. The Blue Devils want a dynamic runner at quarterback — something former QB Maalik Murphy wasn’t — and that’s what Walker is. A true playmaker, he also has a sky-high ceiling for development as a passer. Walker’s commitment is more evidence that the perception of Duke is shifting among top-tier recruits.
ESPN 300 ranking: 157
It’s easy to see why Arizona State’s coaching staff loves Fette considering he’s a mirror image of current quarterback Sam Leavitt. Fette is a sandlot-style riverboat gambler who thrives when the play breaks down. He looks like a pocket passer, but has the athleticism of a runner and can stress defenses with his legs. Coach Kenny Dillingham will use a lot of smoke and mirrors with shifts, motions, personnel groupings and backfield action to maximize Fette’s dynamic skill set and make him a threat both inside and outside the pocket.
ESPN 300 ranking: 6
Bell enters an ideal situation. The Longhorns don’t need to rush him, and instead can allow him to develop at his own pace. His fit is quite akin to Arch Manning‘s, and if Bell follows a similar blueprint he will get bigger, stronger and more mature over time. He already displays the tools of a high-level passer and adds value as a more capable runner than Quinn Ewers did in Steve Sarkisian’s system. Bell is a naturally gifted passer with a long track record of performance against elite competition, so he is ready to make the jump.
ESPN 300 ranking: N/A — three-star
Regardless of Carson Beck‘s production this fall, Coleman will be able to deliver the dynamism that Miami showcased with Cam Ward at the helm, which will make the Hurricanes much more difficult to defend. Coleman is the type of player Miami will prefer at quarterback in the long run. He has moxie, a gunslinger’s mentality and a live arm capable of making off-platform plays look routine. Remind you of anyone?
ESPN 300 ranking: 155
It’s easy to see shades of former Trojans quarterback Caleb Williams when watching Jonas Williams. He’s a naturally creative and improvisational quarterback. The play is never over, sometimes to a fault, but often to devastating effect. Williams can move the launch point and change arm angles, especially when asked to get the ball out quickly on screens and underneath throws. He thrives in chaos and can run the play-action offense Lincoln Riley loves to employ.
ESPN 300 ranking: 16
Henderson is another signal-caller with similarities to Darian Mensah, who played for current Houston coach Willie Fritz at Tulane. Landing Henderson was a huge win for Fritz. Henderson is a terrific athlete who can reach 20.6 mph max speed, an elite number for a quarterback. We’re intrigued to see whether he sticks at quarterback or moves to another position. For that reason, he’s more of a developmental player who needs to get more consistent in the passing game, but he has a high ceiling regardless of position.
ESPN 300 ranking: 198
At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, Huhn has the kind of stature coach James Franklin and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki love. Though not as mobile as Drew Allar, Huhn is very athletic in the pocket. He can extend plays and shows strong anticipation off play-action. Huhn loves to play under center, which is a valuable trait in a Penn State offense that blends shotgun and traditional looks. With a scheme that frequently shifts the launch point through varied play-action concepts, Huhn’s footwork and functional mobility make him a natural fit.
ESPN 300 ranking: N/A — three-star
It’s still unclear exactly what North Carolina’s offense will look like under Bill Belichick, but recent quarterback additions offer a clue. The Tar Heels brought in dual-threat options in South Alabama transfer Gio Lopez and 2025 commit Bryce Baker. Neither is a traditional pocket passer, nor is Burgess. He’s a great get for North Carolina with his athleticism, live arm, quick release and developmental upside. He also won’t be thrust into action immediately. Once the staff understands his strengths, he’s the kind of player it can build a system around. Though not as tall, he’s reminiscent of NC State’s CJ Bailey.
ESPN 300 ranking: N/A — three-star
Cherry is the prototypical athletic pocket passer for Jeff Brohm’s system. He’s decisive, releases the ball quickly and anticipates plays well. Combine that with Brohm’s tried-and-true scheme, and it’s easy to see why Louisville is a destination for quarterbacks such as Cherry who are looking to up their game. He is similar to Cardinals transfer quarterback Miller Moss in both skill and style. Cherry thrives in quick-game concepts, excels in the intermediate passing attack and is highly effective off deep play-action. Louisville is attractive for Cherry because it always layers good skill players around its quarterback.
Will Tuesday night’s matchup between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers be the final game of the 2024-25 season? Or will there be one more on Friday?
The Panthers lead 3-2 in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final ahead of Game 6 (8 p.m. ET, TNT/Max). If they win, they skate the Cup on home ice. If the Oilers win, Game 7 is back in Edmonton.
Here are notes on the matchup from ESPN Research, as well as betting intel from ESPN BET:
More from Game 5: Recap | Grades
Matchup notes
Florida Panthers at Edmonton Oilers
Game 6 | 8 p.m. ET | TNT/Max
With a 3-2 lead ahead of Game 6 on home ice, the Panthers are now -400 favorites to win the Cup and the Oilers are +300; those numbers are adjusted from prior to Game 5, when both clubs were -110. As for the Conn Smythe Trophy, Sam Bennett remains the leader, but his odds have shifted from +150 to -190. Brad Marchand (+300), Connor McDavid (+700) and Leon Draisaitl (+700) round out the top four.
The Panthers are seeking to become the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions by beating the same team since the Montreal Canadiens did so against the Boston Bruins in 1977 and 1978 — for the Habs, those were titles No. 2 and 3 of four straight earned between 1976 and 1979. A Panthers win would be the fourth Stanley Cup for a team based in the state of Florida this decade (the Tampa Bay Lightning won in 2020 and 2021).
The Oilers are facing elimination for the first time in the 2025 playoffs. Last year, they were 5-1 when facing elimination — including three wins in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final after falling behind 3-0. Road teams facing elimination in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final have gone 6-6 in the past 12 occurrences.
Marchand is having a superb Stanley Cup Final, scoring six goals thus far. That marks the most goals in a Cup Final since Esa Tikkanen (1988, also six). Marchand is the first player to score five or more goals with multiple teams in a Cup Final, and his five road goals in this series are the most in a single Cup Final since Jack Adams had six for the Vancouver Millionaires in 1922. With multiple multigoal games in the Cup Final, Marchand joins Jeff Friesen (New Jersey Devils, 2003) and Max Talbot (2009, Pittsburgh Penguins) as the only players to pull off that feat in the past 30 years.
Teammate Sam Bennett is also entering historic territory. With a goal in Edmonton in Game 5, he became the fifth player in NHL history with a streak of six straight road games with a goal. He is also the fourth active NHL player to score 15 goals in a single postseason, joining Zach Hyman (16, 2024), Alex Ovechkin (15, 2018) and Sidney Crosby (15, 2009).
Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky tied the NHL record for most road wins in a single postseason (10). The other five goalies tied atop the list are: Jordan Binnington (St. Louis Blues, 2019), Braden Holtby (Washington Capitals, 2018), Jonathan Quick (Los Angeles Kings, 2012), Miikka Kiprusoff (Calgary Flames, 2004), Martin Brodeur (Devils, 2000 and 1995).
With three goals in this series, Edmonton’s Corey Perry tied Mark Recchi (Bruins, 2011) and Igor Larionov (Detroit Red Wings, 2002) for the most goals by a player age 40 or older in a single Cup Final.
McDavid scored a point in every home game he played since the 4 Nations Face-Off break — a run of 17 straight games, with 36 points in that span. He reached 150 playoff points in 95 games, the third-fastest player in NHL history to reach that benchmark, behind Wayne Gretzky (68 games played) and Mario Lemieux (86).
With one more game-winning goal this series, Draisaitl would become just the third player in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) — and first since 1977 — to have three game winners in a single Stanley Cup Final. The previous players to do so are Jacques Lemaire (1977) and Jean Beliveau (1965 and 1960), both of whom accomplished the feat for the Canadiens.
0:47
Oilers coach: We’ve overcome difficult situations before
Kris Knoblauch keeps faith in his Oilers as he reflects on losing Game 5 in Edmonton.
Scoring leaders
GP: 22 | G: 15 | A: 7
GP: 21 | G: 11 | A: 22
Best bets for Game 6
Evander Kane over 4.5 total hits (+107): The Oilers need to be more physical if they hope to have a legitimate shot at pushing this series to a Game 7. Saturday’s team total of 25 hits, including only a pair from Kane, isn’t going to cut it. An aggressive difference-maker when he’s at his best at nearing, but not crossing, the line as he has too often this series, the winger will be one to watch from the get-go Tuesday. Notably, he registered 17 total hits through both overtime games to open this series in Edmonton. Win or lose, Kane is going to serve as a factor. Hopefully for the Oilers, not by earning himself time in the penalty box.
Stuart Skinner under 25.5 total saves (-120): If Skinner — presuming coach Kris Knoblauch goes with his No. 1 netminder to start Game 6 — struggles, or the rest of the Oilers fail to perform well enough out front, he won’t last long enough in the crease to make 26 saves before all is said and done. The leash will be short in this must-win contest. Or perhaps Edmonton’s team defense rises to the occasion and prevents more scoring chances in support of their starting goaltender, as it did in earlier rounds versus Dallas and Vegas.
Connor McDavid first period anytime goal-scorer (+600): After Leon Draisaitl scored the opener in Game 1, the Panthers are perfect in four straight games at catching the back of the net first, outscoring Edmonton 11-4 altogether in the initial period. The Oilers understand reversing that trend would go a long way in helping them survive, particularly by forcing Florida to sway from their stifling defensive play. Who better to look to than McDavid, who finally found the back of the net this series in Saturday’s losing effort? The sport’s best player needs to shoot more, and he knows it. He’ll be revved right up to make a statement, early. — Victoria Matiash
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani jogged off the pitcher’s mound and leaned against the dugout railing while strapping on his elbow guard and batting gloves. He was thrown a towel to wipe the sweat off his face, then walked to the batter’s box to face San Diego Padres ace Dylan Cease without taking any practice swings.
With that, Ohtani began his quest to once again do what many in the sport consider impossible.
Ohtani made his pitching debut from Dodger Stadium on Monday, giving up a run in his lone inning of work, then struck out in his first plate appearance as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ designated hitter, marking the first time he has pitched and hit in a game since Aug. 23, 2023. He would eventually finish 2-4 with two RBIs in his club’s 6-3 victory.
Ohtani is close to 21 months removed from a second repair of his right ulnar collateral ligament but faced hitters only three times before essentially rejoining the Dodgers’ rotation, his last session, from Petco Park in San Diego last Tuesday, spanning three simulated innings and 44 pitches.
Ohtani communicated to the Dodgers that facing hitters hours before games, then cooling off and having to ramp back up to DH later that night, was more taxing on his body than doing both simultaneously, prompting him to return to pitching sooner than expected. These initial starts will basically function as the continuation of Ohtani’s pitching rehab. On Monday, he was basically utilized as an opener.
Ohtani reached 99.9 mph and 100.2 mph with his fastball but also uncorked a wild pitch while utilizing 28 pitches to record the first three outs. Fernando Tatis Jr. led off with a bloop single and Luis Arraez followed with a line-drive single. Ohtani should have recorded a strikeout of Manny Machado, who went around on a two-strike swing. But first-base umpire Ryan Blakney ruled otherwise, bringing the count to 2-2 and later prompting a sacrifice fly to score the game’s first run.
Ohtani followed by inducing groundouts to Gavin Sheets and Xander Bogaerts, and with that, his pitching debut was over.
The Dodgers hope it’s the first of many starts.
Ohtani, 30, functioned as a transformative two-way player from 2021 to 2023, winning two unanimous MVPs and also finishing as the runner-up to Aaron Judge. On offense, Ohtani slashed .277/.379/.585 with 124 home runs and 57 stolen bases. On the mound, he posted a 2.84 ERA with 542 strikeouts and 143 walks in 428⅓ innings.
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