FOR MONTHS, BROWN University head baseball coach Grant Achilles was asked when Olivia Pichardo might take the field and become the first woman to play in Division I. National media attended every game hoping to catch a glimpse of history — an unusual amount of attention for a baseball team typically covered by the student newspaper.
Pichardo, an outfielder and a pitcher who has played baseball since she was 5, had shined on stages from Little League to PONY baseball to MLB’s Trailblazer Series and all the way to a stint with the USA Baseball Women’s National Team in 2022. But when it was announced that she had made the Brown Bears as a walk-on, interest had perhaps never been higher.
On March 18, Pichardo pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 10-1 Brown loss to the Bryant University Bulldogs in Providence, Rhode Island. On a first-pitch fastball from Bryant righty M.T. Morrissey, Pichardo grounded out sharply to first base. The at-bat would be her only appearance of her freshman season. The moment was indeed historic, but the lone at-bat also fueled Pichardo’s critics, who questioned whether her addition to the team amounted to a publicity stunt.
