Pisgah's Female Pitcher is Just One of the Guys

She may be the only girl on Mount Pisgah Christian School’s baseball team but Sandy Almon is hardly intimidated. “I think they’re more intimidated than I am,” she said of her male teammates.

And she’s not just an anomaly on her own team; the opposing teams are boys' clubs too.  The 18-year-old relief pitcher and third baseman said she does feel like she has to prove herself and earn her position. When her teammates taunt her—all in fun—she said, “I get to prove them wrong.”

Almon is a senior but this is her first year at Mount Pisgah. Prior to coming to the college preparatory school in Johns Creek she attended North Cobb High School. She was on the baseball team there but didn’t get a lot of playing time. After her sophomore year she didn’t make the team. And while Almon did play softball, she said the sport “doesn’t give me any type of competition. I feel it’s really easy.”

The person who was most surprised by Almon not making the baseball team at North Cobb was her mother, Darlene Almon. “When she got in [the games] she made no errors. She was the only player that they had that was errorless the whole season,” she said. Darlene, a pre-kindergarten teacher and single mom of seven kids (Sandy is the youngest), started asking around at work about options for her daughter to play baseball. People encouraged her to have Sandy play on a summer team.  “That’s how we found Mount Pisgah,” Darlene explained.  “She played for them that summer [before her senior year]. They said, ‘She’s good.  If she was here we wouldn’t have any problem playing her.’”

Sandy’s mother said Pisgah looked like a win-win situation. Not only would Sandy get to play baseball, she would have smaller class sizes and possibly be better prepared for college. 

While Sandy and her mom are pleased with Pisgah, one downside is the commute, which can take up to an hour each way from their home in Acworth. Sandy wakes up at 5:30 a.m. on school days and said she often sleeps in the car while her mom drives. Sometimes the two don’t get home until after 9 p.m. if there’s a practice or a baseball game. 

And after coming from a public school, paying tuition for a private education isn’t easy either. Darlene said she manages to cover the cost with a payment plan as well as some help from the state.

John O’Connor, Mount Pisgah’s varsity baseball head coach, said he had no hesitations about bringing a female onto an all-boys team. “Sandy can play and boys at this level will respect anyone as long as they can play. One of the cool parts of this season has been watching Sandy's interaction with the team and seeing the boys cheer her on,” he said.

O’Connor said that, as a pitcher, she has poise, control and very fluid mechanics. “Also, she is probably our best defensive third baseman,” he added. At press time Pisgah’s record was 14-7 and Sandy was even the starting pitcher for some of the games.

Coach O’Connor said Almon’s best traits are her sense of humor and fantastic personality. That was evident when she said her favorite subject in school is P.E. and then laughed, adding, “I’m just kidding!” (It’s actually English.) Off the field Almon said she thinks of herself as more of a girl’s girl. You won’t necessarily find her in dresses, she said, but rather skinny jeans and a tank top.

Right now she has her eye on graduation and then playing for USA Baseball’s Women’s National Team this summer. She’s still weighing her options for college but is hoping to play baseball. According to the NCAA, there were no female baseball players in Divisions I, II or III during the 2009-2010 season. (They do not have demographics for the 2010-2011 season yet.) But Sandy does have a back-up: She’s also a talented basketball player.

But even playing baseball at the high school level is surely inspirational to young potential female players. Almon’s advice to girls with sports aspirations? “Never give up and always go for your dreams. It’s more of what you want to do then what they want you to do. Break boundaries.”