Queens’ Olivia Pichardo Becomes First Female to Make NCAA D1 Baseball Roster at Princeton

Queens native and Brown University undergraduate Olivia Pichardo has become the first woman to make an NCAA Division I varsity baseball roster, the college recently announced. .

The 18-year-old utility infielder will suit up for Brown for the 2023 season, which starts this February.

Pichardo made the USA Baseball Women’s National Team in the summer of 2022. She also played club baseball for the New York Crush and Next Level Baseball.

Pichardo said she has used another female baseball pioneer as motivation for playing the game.

“Kelsie Whitmore been an inspiration for me for a long time,” she said on BrownBeats.com. “She was the first female baseball player I had ever heard of and ever since, I have been following her journey. I had the chance to play on the same team as her on the USA Baseball Women’s National Team.”

Pichardo started playing baseball for Forest Hills Little League in Queens as a Kindergarten student.

Pichardo continued her baseball journey, playing middle school and high school baseball at the Garden School in Jackson Heights, Queens, before winding up at Brown.

— Jerry Del Priore