The bases were loaded with two outs in the ninth inning when Nelson Figueroa, pitching coach for the Staten Island FerryHawks, waved to the bullpen for a reliever. A right-hander answered with a nod, jogged to the mound and four pitches later was out of the jam, getting the batter to pop out.
Similar scenarios play out in professional ballparks across the country every night. This at-bat, before a crowd of 735 on the banks of New York Bay last month, was historic because it made Kelsie Whitmore the first woman to pitch in the Atlantic League — a 10-team independent professional league on par with the highest level of minor league baseball.
Three days earlier Whitmore, a ponytail covering the blue No. 3 on the back of her uniform, had become the first woman to start in an Atlantic League game, playing left field and reaching base once in three plate appearances.
