Aces assistant coach Jen Hammond chats with coaches and players during a game in 2024. Photo by Tess Wilhelm.  

Written by Erin Hughes

The popularity of women’s sports is growing, with the 2025 NCAA softball tournament and the 2024 WNBA season boasting record viewership numbers. Sports icons such as Serena Williams, Simone Biles, and Caitlin Clark are among the most recognizable athletes in the United States. But what about the women in male-dominated sports such as baseball?

The Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League can answer that question.

Alexandria Aces assistant coach Jen Hammond, Aces scorekeeper Emily-Anne Patt, and Bethesda Big Train Director of Operations Raquel Ordonez each play important roles for their teams and the CRSCBL. While each of their journeys is a little bit different, they share similar experiences that shape who they are and the impact they have on baseball.

Hammond, the Aces’ assistant coach, “came into coaching almost accidentally.” She and a friend were still playing recreationally when they filled in as softball coaches at a local school. The next year, Hammond made the switch from softball to baseball. Now, more than a decade later, she finds herself as a coach at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria as well as with D.C. Girls Baseball, a local youth baseball league for girls in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. 

Ordonez, of the Big Train, also found her way to baseball accidentally, noting that she didn’t get into the sport until her senior year in college. She and her college roommate watched a number of Yankees and Orioles games that year – she favored the O’s – and by the time she finished her master’s degree at Northwestern, she knew she “wanted to go into the operations side of things, whether that be business or even working with college athletics.”

Patt’s journey to scorekeeping began with one of the most enduring elements of baseball; numbers are exciting to her. She “always really liked the mathematical precision of the game and the fact that there are true outcomes of the game.” Like the Aces’ Hammond, Patt began with softball, keeping a scorebook from the time she was five years old at her sister’s games. She hasn’t stopped scoring since that first game.  

Support is an important piece of the journey for women in baseball. Ordonez highlighted the importance of this backing. Still new to Bethesda – she joined the organization just a few months before the season – she knows that the sports industry “can be very difficult at times…but it’s a matter of surrounding yourself with people who will advocate for you.”  Ordonez manages the Big Train’s day-to-day operations, such as game day entertainment and promotions, overseeing interns, and more. 

She has already felt the impact of the supportive women surrounding her, specifically naming Big Train board members Rachel Northridge, Amy Matush, and Margie Yeager as key figures helping her “navigate this industry.” This type of support is evident throughout the organization – even before she arrived, the Big Train have worked to employ more women in their internship program.

Ordonez also noted Kelliann Jenkins, who pitched for the Big Train in 2019, becoming the first woman to play in the CRSCBL. Before the 2025 season started, one of the Big Train interns wrote a feature story on Jenkins. 

“I think that’s just a great testament to what the Big Train, and the league, has done in general in terms of having women writers, women directors, and people in power,” Ordonez said.

When many people think about sports, and especially when comparing men and women participating in similar activities, they identify differences. Coach Hammond sees the opposite. 

Although she’s involved across different age groups and genders, she has “found a shocking amount of similarity in the things we’re coaching…I think you see the same challenges in teaching people how to play the game…whether it’s our kids or our college guys, it’s teaching them to embrace failure as a teacher and as part of the game instead of being afraid to fail. The reality is, there’s more common denominators than not.” 

While working in a different area of baseball, Patt, the Aces’ scorekeeper, has a similar outlook.  She regularly presents at conferences and often publishes research on baseball statistics. 

When speaking, Patt routinely fields a number of questions about her research, but noted that she is asked just as many questions regarding “what’s it like to be a woman in baseball?”  Her response is always straightforward and to the point: “I bet it’s like being a man in baseball because the numbers don’t know my gender.” 

Both Hammond and Patt are aware that baseball has had a big impact on their lives.  Hammond says that being a woman coaching in baseball “has taught me how to build confidence and walk into a room knowing I have something to offer. Everyone has things they’re working on, and I can offer something.” 

Patt’s biggest takeaway from baseball has been to “be decisive and don’t apologize for your choices and don’t walk them back…as long as I can explain [my choices], I feel good about it.” 

Ordonez, Patt, and Hammond are leaving their mark in the CRSCBL and across the sport. They hope other women will follow them and offered similar words of wisdom to those thinking about a career around the diamond. 

Ordonez encouraged young women to not “be afraid to take the challenge and just have a willingness to learn, even if it’s from a male counterpart…[because] we can also take that information and use our own perspective on it… have your voice be heard.” 

Patt stated clearly “don’t apologize for being there. Find those people, whether they be male or female, that think you belong there too.” She also brought up Hammond, saying that she serves as a reminder that women belong in all aspects of baseball.

Hammond knows that young girls “legitimately can now see a lane, an avenue for them to participate in the sport that wasn’t [always] there. We’ve had two or three girls participating in college ball, which is an opportunity that was nonexistent.” Similar to the Big Train’s Jenkins in 2019, Alexia Jorge, a female catcher, is on a roster in the Coastal Plain League, another collegiate summer baseball league, this summer. 

Hammond also recognizes the importance of her role as part of the on-field staff. “I’m proud to be one of the few female coaches doing it, but at the same time, I don’t want to stand out. I want to work just as hard as everybody else, have the same expectations as everyone else, and then be judged on what I'm doing, not on my gender.”

As part of D.C. Girls Baseball and the Eastern Women’s Baseball Conference, Hammond explained that both organizations are legitimate lanes for girls and women to participate in the sport. 

“Everyone is welcome! We have girls and women of all ages and abilities…the point is to create a place for them to play, so please know there’s always a place for you,” she said.

On July 12, Hammond made an even bigger mark on the Ripken Sr. League when she served as the Aces’ manager against Ordonez’s club, the Big Train. Filling in for head coach Chris Berset, Hammond picked up her second win in as many games with a 9-4 victory over the Big Train. She previously stepped in for Berset against the Gaithersburg Giants on July 20, 2023, becoming the first woman to coach and win a Ripken Sr. League game. Hammond praised her players’ smart, heads-up base running as well as the trio of Seton Hall pitchers who held it down on the mound. Throughout her tenure with the Aces, Hammond is 2-0 as head coach, has three regular season titles, and a league championship.