By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

First all-girls baseball team in CABL making big strides

Jun 21, 2018 | 4:04 PM

You might say they’re in a league on their own.

The Mosquito Braves Pink made history this year, becoming the first ever all-girls team to play in the Central Alberta Baseball League, wrapping up league play in recent days.

The Red Deer-based Braves squad was an experiment born two years ago. Assistant coach Davin Gulbransen says his 5-year-old son’s team would typically have several onlookers – the players’ older sisters. From there, Gulbransen’s wife suggested they try actually putting a team together.

“I thought well I don’t really know anything about girl’s baseball, but sure, why not?” says Gulbransen. “My wife said it’s such a small window of time these girls would have an opportunity, so why don’t we pursue playing as an all-girls team?”

Over the course of the last few months, the 13 girls aged 10 and 11 haven’t won a single game, playing every game against teams with mostly male players. They did however lose a few by just one run. Nonetheless, the journey has been about much more than victories and losses, according to Gulbransen.

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“None of these girls, before this year, had played an actual game of baseball in their lives. Baseball is hard enough when you’re good at it, but wow, it’s a hard sport to learn and to teach,” he says. “The big thing for us was the girls having fun. We wanted them to look forward to the next practice and game, and to do that, you have to do the little things to make it fun.”

That mission was successful, as the girls could be heard on a regular basis talking about playing next year, Gulbransen says. While four or five are graduating, the team should have a strong core to build on next season.

“It would be phenomenal to have an all-girls team at every level. Now whether or not there’s enough interest, I think softball still dominates the marketplace as far as attracting female ball players and that’s fine because they’re two different sports,” says the long-time member of the Red Deer Riggers.

“I’ll never forget the first time that we caught a fly ball for an out in a game. You’d have thought they’d won the World Series. For them it was such a huge accomplishment because none of them could catch a baseball with a glove before this year.”

The Mosquito Braves Pink, who received visits during the season from Mayor Tara Veer, as well as local provincial and national team-members Hayley and Kelsey Lalor, will play in the CABL playoffs this weekend.

In addition, Baseball Alberta is hosting the latest in their Girls Baseball Days series at Hunting Hills High School diamonds in Red Deer on Friday, June 22.

Girls aged 7-16 of all skill levels are invited out for the development session which runs from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The cost is $10 and you can register at the field. More details at AlbertaGirlsBaseball.com.