Folks figured the California State University, San Marcos baseball and softball coaches were kidding when they started discussing the idea of Jillian Albayati playing for both teams.
Jose Garcia and Stef Ewing were completely serious. So when the short-handed Cougars baseball team needed a pitcher at the weekend, everybody knew Albayati could handle the job.
She is a reliable right-handed pitcher in baseball and plays third base for softball.
“We’ve got an arm, and we’ve got a legit arm,” Ewing said on Monday.
Albayati became just the second player in US collegiate history and first in Division II to appear in formal baseball and softball games the same day when she pitched the final inning in the opener of a doubleheader against Sonoma State.
“It’s a great story and there really is an opportunity for Jill to go again for them with the health of the pitching staff,” Ewing said.
Fortunately with the school’s baseball and softball fields only about a football field apart, Albayati was able to play softball for the Cougars in the morning before she switched gears — and gear — for some baseball next door. Cal State San Marcos posted side-by-side photographs of her on social media from both games.
“It was so awesome,” she told NBC San Diego. “It just felt like where I needed to be at that moment, it felt pretty amazing.”
Thanks to California’s rainy spring “putting wrinkles in the schedule,” as Ewing described it, the first-place baseball team had two nine-inning games on Saturday followed by one nine-inning contest and a seven-inning second game on Sunday.
When Ewing received word “baseball needs Jill right now,” Albayati changed uniforms “and took off running with cleats and her glove.”
Albayati’s softball teammates scurried to the baseball field to watch and cheer her on.
“You could just hear the roars of people when they announced Jill and she took the field,” Ewing said. “What’s great about it is there was never a doubt in my mind Jill could do it.”
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
RSS