{"id":650516,"date":"2026-03-29T13:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/650516\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T13:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:52:16","slug":"bay-area-native-arwen-mcculloughs-part-in-return-of-womens-pro-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/650516\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area native Arwen McCullough’s part in return of women’s pro baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arwen McCullough represents the first wave of hope for young female baseball players in 72 years. That\u2019s how long it\u2019s been since the All-American Girls Baseball League, of \u201cA League of Their Own\u201d fame, ceased to exist.<\/p>\n

Nothing had taken its place until the Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League<\/a> began operations this fall.<\/p>\n

McCullough, a Livermore native and right-handed pitcher, was selected by the San Francisco franchise in the final round of the WPBL\u2019s worldwide inaugural draft<\/a> in November. There are no guarantees she\u2019ll make the 15-player roster later this summer, but it\u2019s a challenge \u2013 and opportunity \u2013 that until now, McCullough and countless other women\u2019s baseball hopefuls couldn\u2019t even dream about.<\/p>\n

\"Arwen<\/a>Arwen McCullough, a Granada High School graduate and current senior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, was recently selected by the San Francisco team in the inaugural Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League draft as she visits her alma mater baseball field in Livermore, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old has been an outsider on boys\u2019 teams much of her baseball life. Until she joined her first women\u2019s-only team in 2016 \u2013 with the Baseball for All organization \u2013 and felt the isolation lift.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cIt opened a whole new world. Wait, there are people just like me who play baseball?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the feeling McCullough wants other girls and women to experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support each other; we build each other up,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cThere\u2019s an underlying sense of camaraderie in that we all have a shared experience of being the only woman on men\u2019s teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that we\u2019ve all had the same or very similar emotional experiences builds a sense of belonging that you can\u2019t replicate anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long ago, McCullough learned a valuable trait: the ability to rely on herself to make things happen. It began during the 2010 World Series, as her beloved Giants faced the Texas Rangers. Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Matt Cain \u2026 Five games.<\/p>\n

Arwen was 7 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom said she\u2019d never seen a kid with ADHD sit still for that long,\u201d McCullough said.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the Giants\u2019 first world championship in the Bay Area, the McCulloughs signed their only child up for the Junior Giants and then Little League. Arwen\u2019s father, Steven, wasn\u2019t a baseball fan, but learned how to throw and hit right alongside Arwen.<\/p>\n

One thing was clear from the beginning: \u201cI wanted to play baseball,\u201d she said. Not softball.<\/p>\n

\"Arwen<\/a>Arwen McCullough, a Granada High School graduate and current senior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, was recently selected by the San Francisco team in the inaugural Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League draft as she visits her alma mater baseball field in Livermore, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The biggest reason?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a pitcher,\u201d she said. \u201cI like pitching overhand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arwen found she could throw more accurately than most of the boys and had more control. The coaches wanted her on the mound, \u201cand I began to love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At younger ages, gender didn\u2019t matter. \u201cI was just one of the guys,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, as she grew older, it became a bigger issue. The inevitable question of \u201cWhen are you going to switch to softball?\u201d became more frequent.<\/p>\n

The other question she heard most often: \u201cWhy is there a girl out here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Arwen found that coaches treated her with a double standard. If she made a mistake or error, she was benched or criticized. If a boy did the same thing, he was given a second chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to be perfect,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In fifth grade, she joined Livermore\u2019s Total Player Center training facility, founded by Jason Sekany, who would eventually become the pitching coach for the U.S. women\u2019s national team development program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was somewhat unique to have a girl playing, but not unheard of,\u201d Sekany said. \u201cBut we\u2019re always excited to see players who are passionate about the game, and she definitely had a tremendous passion for baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullough is a perfectionist. She arrived daily at TPC to work on her mechanics \u2013 on the mound and in the batter\u2019s box. She joined a travel baseball team, first as a reluctant guest, and then as a full-fledged rotational weapon. Not many pitchers her age could hit their spots and keep batters off-balance by changing speeds and locations.<\/p>\n

She loved to see a batter\u2019s overconfidence of watching a girl on the mound end with a strikeout or a weak chopper in the infield.<\/p>\n

On the mound, \u201cI feel like I have so much power,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I get out there, I\u2019m like, I run this freaking game. You\u2019re going to bend to my will, and I\u2019m going to do what I want.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an intoxicating feeling: I pace the game, you\u2019re at my whim. When you\u2019re a pitcher, you know exactly what I\u2019m talking about, that confidence of going up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullough\u2019s baseball evolution included the good and the bad. She remembers being sized up by a coach at one tryout and watching him whisper something to a male player. Then that player joined her to play catch and threw at her as hard as he could.<\/p>\n

She often felt she was being tested.<\/p>\n

\"Arwen<\/a>Arwen McCullough, a Granada High School graduate and current senior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, was recently selected by the San Francisco team in the inaugural Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League draft as she visits her alma mater baseball field in Livermore, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Sometimes, teammates would stick up for her against the verbal barbs from opposing dugouts. Sometimes they wouldn\u2019t. But through it all, McCullough never strayed from her desire to play baseball, even when that path was blocked.<\/p>\n

She played softball her final three years at Livermore High after being cut from the freshman baseball team and was recruited to play college softball. But she had other ideas.<\/p>\n

McCullough wanted to attend a West Coast-based college where she could create a women\u2019s club baseball team.<\/p>\n

As a freshman at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, McCullough went to work. She posted flyers and created a Google interest form. She bought T-shirts with her own money, advertised at club fairs\u2013 \u201cNo experience necessary.\u201d She got a university sanction to start the club, field time, equipment and the use of a shed.<\/p>\n

McCullough\u2019s first \u201crecruiting\u201d class consisted of just three players. But eventually, the club caught on, and last spring, the Mustangs won the Baseball for All Women\u2019s College Club Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was never afraid of failure, never afraid of resistance,\u201d Sekany said. \u201cThere was never a roadblock that could stop her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk with our athletes all the time about the fact that this game\u2019s going to tell you \u2018no\u2019 a lot. She\u2019s been told \u2018no\u2019 more than just about anybody and has adapted to that and overcome it. She continues to not only find opportunities, but to create them.\u201d<\/p>\n

When word that the WPBL was forming, McCullough and three of her teammates paid their own way to Washington, D.C., to attend a mass tryout. In all, 600 players spent four days in August at Nationals Park, the home of the Washington Nationals, trying to secure one of 120 draft spots.<\/p>\n

Among the group was Mo\u2019ne Davis, the first girl to throw a shutout in Little League World Series history, and Kelsie Whitmore, a veteran of five seasons as a pitcher in men\u2019s pro independent leagues, including the Oakland Ballers.<\/p>\n

McCullough took the attitude of: \u201cI\u2019m going to go in here, and regardless of what happens, I am part of history. I\u2019m going to work the hardest on the field, and I\u2019m going to have the most fun. I\u2019m going to be loud, and I\u2019m going to hustle my ass off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her approach paid off.<\/p>\n

McCullough, hosting a draft party in San Luis Obispo, was selected in the sixth and final round, with the 105th overall pick, by the San Francisco franchise. Shortstop Kaija Bazzano from Sebastopol \u2013 and a former teammate at Cal Poly \u2013 was the only other Bay Area native picked (Round 4, No. 80), also by San Francisco. Overall, 10 countries plus Puerto Rico were represented among the draftees.<\/p>\n

\"Arwen<\/a>Arwen McCullough, a Granada High School graduate and current senior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, was recently selected by the San Francisco team in the inaugural Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League draft as she visits her alma mater baseball field in Livermore, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The four teams \u2013 including Boston, Los Angeles, and New York \u2013 are expected to play the entire league schedule in a central location in Illinois.<\/p>\n

The league won\u2019t begin its inaugural season until August 1, shortly after the Women\u2019s Baseball World Cup. And as the major leaguers were heading to Arizona for spring training, the WPBL draftees hadn\u2019t been told how they might compete for roster spots.<\/p>\n

The players have their own information network, and there has been talk that only players taken in the first three rounds will make the teams, with others sent to a developmental camp or on barnstorming tours.<\/p>\n

Arwen, while frustrated at the lack of transparency, understands as well as anyone how difficult starting a baseball team \u2013 let alone a league \u2013 from scratch can be.<\/p>\n

What matters is she\u2019s a player in a pro women\u2019s league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am part of history,\u201d she said proudly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arwen McCullough represents the first wave of hope for young female baseball players in 72 years. That\u2019s how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,2178,4,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-650516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116312801059301133","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}