Tsawwassen's Marika Lyszczyk will be catching for NCAA men's team when baseball season begins
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2019 22:19:57 +0000
Diamonds are Marika Lyszczyk’s friend, ever since she was a little girl and joined her first boys’ baseball team.
Now, the 18-year-old from Tsawwassen and former Whalley Chiefs pitcher/catcher heads to Nashua, N.H., in January after being recruited by the Rivier Raiders for their men’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) baseball team.
“I’m very excited,” Lyszczyk said. “It’s always been a dream of mine (to play U.S. collegiate ball), and no I did not think it was realistic at first.”
She’ll arrive in New England via Texas, where she caught the eye of super-scout Jeremy Booth at an elite baseball clinic held by Major League Baseball. She was one of six females from Canada to be invited.
After watching her, Booth put a call in to his buddy at Rivier University, coach Anthony Perry, and the coach began watching video of Lyszczyk and reading her scouting report. That was in March and April. Perry liked what he saw.
“I watched how she stepped up to the plate, how she saw the ball well,” he said over the phone from Nashua. “She’s a good catcher and I’m a former catcher, so I’m biased when it comes to catchers. Just how she handles herself, I think she’ll be a perfect fit.”
The guys on the team were curious at first, Perry said, but have been very supportive.
“One thing we teach is trust in each other and they trust me not to bring in someone who is not going to help us win. We’re a family and we’re welcoming a sister to our family,” he said.
Marika Lyszczyk and her coach, Anthony Perry, after the South Delta graduate committed to the Rivier University Raiders as a catcher with the men’s baseball team.
Lyszczyk was six-years-old when she began playing on boys’ baseball teams, since there was no baseball for girls. The South Delta Secondary graduate also played softball in girls’ leagues up until Grade 7, when she chose hardball over fast pitch. She played some second base, some catcher, but she thought if she was going to be recruited it would be as a pitcher. Booth told her to focus on catching instead.
“I said, ‘Catching?,’ ” Lyszczyk said. “Everybody told me it had never been done before (a female college catcher). I always thought if I was going to play college baseball it would be as a pitcher. Him telling me that really flipped my mind in a new direction as far as things I could do in my future.”
The Rivier Raiders play in Div. 3 of the NCAA, whose regular season starts at the beginning of March. Preparing for indoor training come January in New Hampshire, Lyszczyk is working out with her former program, the Chiefs of the senior B.C. Premier Baseball League. She was the first female to play in that elite league.
She’s on an academic scholarship at Nashua and she’ll study psychology, but she would love it if her profession winds up being in baseball broadcasting, to take her love of the sport and turn into a job.
“One day I hope to do sideline commentating and interviewing players for Major League Baseball,” she said. “I would really like to do that.”