School Forfeited Baseball Game Rather Than Playing A Girl

Mesa Prep second baseman Paige Sultzbach, image: Facebook

There's no crying in baseball, and now we learn that there's also no playing against girls in baseball. At least, that's what happened in Arizona last week:

All second baseman Paige Sultzbach wanted to do was play in her school's state championship baseball game tonight.

But because she is a girl, that won't happen.

Sultzbach is a freshman at Mesa Preparatory Academy, which had been scheduled to play Our Lady of Sorrows Academy in tonight's Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship at Phoenix College.

But Our Lady of Sorrows, a fundamentalist Catholic school in Phoenix that lost twice to Mesa Prep during the regular season, chose to forfeit the championship game rather than play a team fielding a female player.

Our Lady of Sorrows school officials would not comment, but Sultzbach's mother, Pamela Sultzbach, said her daughter and the rest of the team received the news after Wednesday afternoon's practice.

"This is not a contact sport, it shouldn't be an issue," Pamela said. "It wasn't that they were afraid they were going to hurt or injure her, it's that (they believe) that a girl's place is not on a field."

David Rookhuyzen of Arizona Republic was there: Link - via Yahoo's Prep Rally