Lewis Mills junior Lillian Martineau is always having to prove herself.
“It gives you this adrenaline to go out there and then you hit the ball and everyone's like ‘OK, OK,’ and then you shake hands and the coach is like 'nice swing, nice hit,' because they're probably not expecting it,” said Martineau. “That's just the truth so kind of proving people wrong, I enjoy it.”
Martineau is that girl on the baseball team - last year she cut her teeth on the JV squad. This year, she made varsity as a pitcher and infielder for the 7-6 Class M squad.
She is still earning her playing time, but she’s plenty used to having to earn her spot to compete with the boys.
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“I've got to train harder, I’ve got to work harder just to be minimally at their level and then if I want to be even better, that's more hours, more training,” said Martineau.
She said she’s thankful to her parents who hit with her and gave her rides to the gym – before she could drive. Martineau is committed to a six days a week routine, at a minimum.
“In the winter, I had basketball so I would go home after basketball, hit in my garage for an hour then do school work, then go to the gym, then the next day, it's kind of just on repeat,” said Martineau.
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Martineau said her goal is to play in college and has gotten some interest so far. In the meantime, she said she's plenty happy to get in the cage to hit with other young girls who might want to play baseball.
