Daisy Armendariz was only 4 years old when she decided baseball would be her sport.
Her dad, Steven Armendariz, had signed his daughter up for spring soccer, and the pair would walk by the baseball fields on their way to the soccer fields.
¡°After one soccer game we¡¯re walking by, and she¡¯s like ¡°Daddy, Daddy, I want to play baseball!¡¯ I said ¡®honey, you don¡¯t know anything about baseball.¡¯ She said, ¡®I¡¯ll learn.¡¯¡± Steven Armendariz recalled.
That summer would be Daisy¡¯s first playing baseball, and there¡¯s been no looking back for the 11-year-old. In addition to playing select baseball, she has also spent the past year practicing and competing at the Texas Rangers MLB Youth Academy at Mercy Street Sports Complex, Presented by Toyota.
¡°It¡¯s fun going out and playing and enjoying the time,¡± Daisy said.
Daisy earned a spot on the 12U team that represented the Academy at the New Orleans MLB Youth Academy 12U Tournament as part of the Andre Dawson classic in February. The sixth grader at Morton Elementary School was the only girl in the tournament, but that didn¡¯t surprise Daisy.
¡°It¡¯s usually like that,¡± she said.
¡°She¡¯s always the only girl. She doesn¡¯t say anything, but I see it in her. That motivates her. We¡¯ll go to some tournaments and you¡¯ll hear in the dugout, ¡®it¡¯s a girl pitching.¡¯ She gets out there and strikes them out. She¡¯ll get up there to bat and you¡¯ll hear the coach, ¡®hey, scoot up, bring it in, it¡¯s a girl.¡¯ She¡¯ll drive that ball out of there,¡± Steven Armendariz said. ¡°I think it drives her to do better.¡±
Although Daisy spends most of her time playing baseball with boys, there have been opportunities to play with girls, too.
Following the New Orleans trip, Daisy was one of 96 baseball players invited to participate in the 2020 Trailblazer Series tournament, a USA Baseball and Major League Baseball initiative for girls to play the game.
It won¡¯t be her first opportunity to play baseball with girls.
In 2019, Daisy and her family traveled to Rockford, IL, the home of the original Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, where she participated in the National Girls Baseball Tournament through Baseball for All.
Seeing these opportunities for girls in the game matters to Daisy ¡°because girls can play, too,¡± she points out.
¡°She does make me proud. It¡¯s a good feeling to see her out there succeeding,¡± her dad said.
Champions
The Academy¡¯s 12U squad took home the championship in the Rangers Youth Ballpark Wood Bat Tournament last weekend. Much of the squad was the same group that traveled to New Orleans to compete in the inaugural New Orleans MLB Youth Academy 12U Tournament as part of the Andre Dawson Classic last month.
The Academy's 12U team emerged from the wood bat tournament at the Rangers Youth Ballpark in First Place.
High School Baseball & Softball Underway
Sunset High School baseball returns to the Academy on Monday, March 9, to host North Dallas.
Below is the schedule of remaining March DISD baseball games to be played at the Academy. Scheduling is subject to change. Additional April and May dates and opponents will be included in future notebooks.
On the softball side, Sunset will host Seagoville on Tuesday, March 10.
Below is the March softball schedule for DISD high school games to be played at the Academy. Scheduling is subject to change. April dates and opponents will be included in future notebooks.
For the third straight year, Pinkston High School baseball and softball teams are calling the Academy home. Sunset High School baseball will also play its home games at the Academy, and the Sunset softball squad will join them in playing their 2020 home games at the facility.
This is the first season Thomas Jefferson High School baseball and softball teams are playing their home games at the Academy after their fields were damaged by the October 2019 tornadoes that hit Dallas.
Coming Soon: Spring Programming
Spring programming begins on Monday, March 16, and runs through Thursday, April 30.
Baseball and softball players ages 7 through 18 will train on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 6:30-8:20 p.m. Sessions are tailored for individual age groups.
There will not be programming on March 31 and April 23.
Registration is available at texasrangers.com/academy.