Marika Lyszczyk: The First Female Catcher in NCAA Baseball

Marika Lyszczyk (pronounced “Lissick”) is a Canadian baseball player from Tsawwassen, British Columbia, who has broken gender barriers across NCAA, summer collegiate, and independent professional baseball. She is the first female catcher in NCAA men’s baseball history, the first Canadian woman to play US college baseball, the first female player in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, and the first woman to play in the Pecos League.

Born February 12, 2001, she began playing baseball at age five, spent her teenage years with the Whalley Chiefs of the British Columbia Premier Baseball League, represented Canada’s National Women’s Team, and has pitched at every level from Division III NCAA to independent professional ball — all while building a parallel career as a content creator and media personality with over 150,000 social media followers.

Early Life in British Columbia

Lyszczyk grew up in Tsawwassen, a coastal community in Delta, British Columbia, just south of Vancouver. She started playing baseball at five years old. By middle school, she was juggling both baseball and softball, with weekend tournaments and back-to-back games pulling her in opposite directions.

Choosing Baseball Over Softball

At eleven, her softball coach gave her an ultimatum: pick one sport. He expected her to choose softball.

“I loved baseball, and I was a little bit better at it,” Lyszczyk said. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to play baseball,’ not thinking of anywhere it would take me today.”

Learning to Catch — “I Sucked at It”

Lyszczyk started as a middle infielder — shortstop and second base. In eighth grade, she made a spontaneous decision to switch to catcher.

“I sucked at it,” she said. “I would close my eyes; I was just not a good catcher.”

She was drawn to the position by the equipment and the involvement in every play. “I always liked being in the plays, so having the opportunity to be in every single play and get to wear this gear? I was hooked,” she said. In Canada’s club baseball system, players pay to participate. Lyszczyk paid at the minimum level specifically so she could learn catching, dropping everything else to focus on the position.

Five Years with the Whalley Chiefs

Her development earned her a tryout with the Whalley Chiefs of the British Columbia Premier Baseball League, one of the most competitive youth circuits in Canada. The arrangement was probationary: if she could keep up, she stayed. If not, she was on her own.

“If you can hang, we’ll keep you around. And if not, you’ll have to kind of figure it out,” she recalled.

She figured it out. Lyszczyk caught for the Chiefs for five years, developing into one of the region’s top young catchers while navigating the challenges of being the only girl on an all-boys team.

“I always tell younger girls that want to pursue baseball that the weird 13-to-14 year is the worst year,” she said. “But once you get past that awkwardness between boys and girls, it’s just normal. The guys are mature enough to know I’m there to compete.”

Not every environment was welcoming. Sonoma State head coach John Goelz, who later coached her in college, said she told him stories about playing on teams where teammates “treated her poorly because she was a woman.” Those stories, he said, “gave me some insight into how hard it really has been for her to do this.”

National Team and the MLB Grit Invitation

From 2018 to 2019, Lyszczyk played for the Canadian National Women’s Baseball Team. In 2019, she was invited to the inaugural MLB Grit Invitational, a showcase for elite female high school baseball players featuring participants from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” she said. “I literally just thought I was going to catch and have some fun, and play with a whole bunch of girls from Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S.”

The Scout Who Saw a Catcher

On the last day of the showcase, event organizer Elizabeth Benn — who has since become director of major league operations for the New York Mets — told Lyszczyk that a scout wanted to speak with her.

The scout asked if she wanted to play college baseball. He wanted her as a catcher.

“People had always told me that if I ever were to play in college it would have to be as a pitcher, because no woman had ever caught before,” Lyszczyk said.

NCAA Career (2020–2023)

Rivier University: Making History

Lyszczyk enrolled at Rivier University, a Division III school in Nashua, New Hampshire. In the spring of 2020, she became the first woman to catch in an NCAA men’s baseball game and the first Canadian woman to play college baseball in the United States. She appeared in seven games before COVID-19 ended the season, collecting a hit and a walk and scoring two runs in 10 plate appearances. She also threw a scoreless inning in a relief appearance.

Rivier did not field a team in 2021 because of the pandemic. Lyszczyk spent that summer with the Sag Harbor Whalers of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, splitting time between catching (16 games) and pitching (5 games). During the season, she began experiencing shoulder pain that would reshape her career.

Rotator Cuff Surgery and the Move to Pitching

She needed surgery on her right rotator cuff. The procedure ended her catching career.

Throughout her years behind the plate, Lyszczyk had dabbled in pitching. With catching no longer an option, she rebuilt her game around the mound during rehab. She returned to Rivier late enough in the 2022 season to make one relief appearance, then threw 10⅔ innings for Sag Harbor that summer, posting a 4.21 ERA in her first full season as a pitcher.

“I pitched one inning, got a 0.00 ERA there,” she said of her initial return to the mound, a moment she recalled with a wide smile.

She also pitched for the River Raiders of Nashua in the Great Northeast Conference in 2020 and 2022.

Sonoma State: A New Level

After three years on the East Coast, Lyszczyk wanted to be closer to home and to attend a school with a strong marketing program. She entered the transfer portal.

“I started the whole recruitment process all over again, which was so difficult,” she said. “The transfer portal was just full, I was a female, and I had just had rotator cuff surgery. I didn’t know if I was going to go anywhere.”

She connected with Sonoma State University, a Division II program in Rohnert Park, California. The story of how she landed there is unusual: while working in the Bay Area, she was on the phone with head coach John Goelz and they realized they would both be at a San Francisco Giants game at Oracle Park that evening. Surrounded by thousands of fans, she told him she wanted to play for him.

Goelz, who had led the Seawolves for 38 years and never had a woman on his roster, said his first thought was that she was “very courageous.”

“It’s not like Jackie Robinson exactly. But it’s unique. And it’s groundbreaking,” he said.

Lyszczyk joined as a right-handed pitcher, majoring in Communications and Media. Early in the 2023 season, she pitched a 1-2-3 inning against Menlo College, maintaining a 0.00 ERA through two appearances. She became the first female baseball player in both Sonoma State and California Collegiate Athletic Association history.

“If I’m not good enough to play, then I shouldn’t be playing.”— Marika Lyszczyk

Summer and Professional Leagues

Sag Harbor Whalers (2021–2022)

Lyszczyk played two summers with the Sag Harbor Whalers of the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League. In 2021, she split time between catching and pitching before her shoulder injury. In 2022, she returned as a pitcher, throwing 10⅔ innings with a 4.21 ERA.

Brockton Rox: First Woman in the FCBL (2023)

In the summer of 2023, Lyszczyk signed with the Brockton Rox of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, a summer wood-bat league in the northeastern United States for college players developing their skills. She became the first female player in both the team’s and the league’s history.

Her debut was not ceremonial. She pitched the ninth inning, striking out one batter.

“Most importantly, I want to compete for the guys,” she said. “Get quick outs, make the innings quick and easy for them.”

She also addressed the double standard she faces every time she takes the field: “It’s hard because sometimes people look at me and think I messed up because I’m a girl, not because I had a bad day and I’m a baseball player.”

Dublin Leprechauns: First Woman in the Pecos League (2025–2026)

In January 2025, the Dublin Leprechauns announced Lyszczyk would join their roster for the upcoming season, making her the first female player in Pecos League history. The Pecos League is an independent professional baseball league operating in cities across Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Founded in 2011, it sits outside MLB’s affiliated minor league system, giving overlooked and released players a path to professional ball. The league plays with a 22-man roster, no designated hitter, and a regular season running from late May through late July.

She made her debut on June 24, 2025, in a 7-6 win over the San Rafael Pacifics. Pitching the seventh and eighth innings, she faced seven batters, allowed one hit (a home run), and struck out a batter, keeping the Leprechauns in the game for the late-inning comeback.

The Leprechauns manager said afterward: “We had originally scheduled to have Marika throw one inning, but she was throwing strikes and was giving us some real energy, so I decided to keep her in the game.”

Dublin finished as the runner-up in the 2025 Pecos League season. Lyszczyk returned to the Leprechauns for 2026, and the team captured the league championship in July 2026.

Career Statistics

Complete statistics from independent and summer leagues are limited, but the following table compiles available data from Lyszczyk’s career.

Full season statistics from summer collegiate leagues and the Pecos League are not comprehensively published. The figures above reflect reported data from game coverage, team announcements, and league records.

Timeline of Firsts

Other Women Who Have Played Men’s Baseball

Lyszczyk’s achievements sit within a longer history of women competing against men in organized baseball — a history that stretches back to the Negro Leagues and continues today, though the total number of women who have done it at any professional or high-collegiate level remains small enough to name individually.

Additional figures include knuckleballer Chelsea Baker, who dominated her high school boys’ baseball league and threw batting practice to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2014, and Melissa Mayeux, a French shortstop who became the first woman on MLB’s international registration list.

What separates Lyszczyk from most of the women listed above is the range of positions and levels. She caught in NCAA baseball — a position of physical vulnerability and tactical authority that no woman had held in men’s college ball — then transitioned to pitching after surgery, and has competed across Division III, Division II, summer collegiate, and independent professional leagues. That breadth is unique.

The common thread among all of them: there is no women’s professional baseball league in North America. Every woman on this list played in men’s leagues by necessity. The women’s softball pipeline in the US and Canada is robust and well-funded, but it runs parallel to men’s baseball, not as a feeder into it.

Media Career and the MLB Creator Class

Lyszczyk has built a second career as a content creator and media personality alongside her playing. She was part of the 2022 MLB Creator Class, a program that brought her onto the field as a correspondent at the World Series, the All-Star Game, the Home Run Derby, the World Baseball Classic, and the Field of Dreams game.

Her social media presence — over 113,000 Instagram followers and more than 150,000 TikTok followers with 6.9 million likes (as of early 2025) — brings baseball to audiences who might never otherwise watch the sport, particularly young women weighing whether there is space for them in it.

She has publicly stated her goal of becoming a sideline reporter. Her playing experience and media skills make that a realistic path, and the two careers reinforce each other: her visibility as a player grows her platform, and her platform amplifies her playing career.

Lyszczyk is also a represented keynote speaker through the Harry Walker Agency, covering topics including perseverance, breaking barriers, and goal-setting.

Why Her Story Matters

MLB has invested in women’s baseball through programs like the Trailblazer Series and MLB Develops, which host tournaments and showcases for female players. USA Baseball’s Women’s National Team competes internationally. But no women’s professional league exists in the United States. College softball exists as an alternative, but it is a different sport with different rules, equipment, and field dimensions.

Women who want to play competitive baseball past youth ball have no clear domestic pathway. The women who reach the levels Lyszczyk has reached do so as individuals navigating a system not designed for them.

Her social media presence gives her story a dimension that earlier pioneers lacked. When Ila Borders pitched in the Northern League in the late 1990s, her games were covered by local newspapers. Lyszczyk’s Pecos League debut was watched by hundreds of thousands of people on social media. Young girls in 2025 and 2026 can watch a woman pitch in professional baseball on their phones. That visibility does not remove the structural barriers, but it changes what the next generation considers possible.

What’s Next

Lyszczyk turned 25 in February 2026. The question she faces constantly is whether she can reach affiliated minor league baseball. No woman has ever appeared on an affiliated minor league roster. The closest any woman has come is Kelsie Whitmore’s appearances in the Atlantic League, an MLB Partner League.

The path likely runs through continued performance in independent ball, demonstrating consistency rather than isolated appearances. Whether or not she reaches affiliated ball, her media career positions her well for a future in sports broadcasting — a goal she has pursued openly.

FAQs

What is Marika Lyszczyk known for?

She is the first female catcher in NCAA men’s baseball history, the first Canadian woman in US college baseball, and the first female player in both the Futures Collegiate Baseball League and the Pecos League.

Where is she from?

Tsawwassen, a coastal community in Delta, British Columbia, Canada.

How did she become a pitcher?

She transitioned from catcher to pitcher after rotator cuff surgery ended her catching career. She rebuilt her game around pitching during rehab and posted a 4.21 ERA in her first full summer on the mound.

Has any woman played in Major League Baseball?

No. No woman has appeared in an MLB game. The closest any woman has come is appearances in independent and MLB-partner leagues by players like Lyszczyk, Kelsie Whitmore, and Ila Borders.

What team does she play for?

She has played for the Dublin Leprechauns of the Pecos League since 2025. The team won the Pecos League championship in 2026.

Is she on social media?

Yes. She is active on Instagram and TikTok, with over 150,000 combined followers and 6.9 million TikTok likes as of early 2025.

Does she do public speaking?

Yes. She is a represented keynote speaker through the Harry Walker Agency, covering perseverance, barrier-breaking, and goal-setting.

What is the Pecos League?

The Pecos League is an independent professional baseball league founded in 2011, operating in cities across Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. It is not affiliated with MLB or its minor league system.

Conclusion

Marika Lyszczyk’s career is documented in box scores, game logs, and video highlights. The strikes happened. The strikeouts happened. The wins are recorded. She has caught and pitched across NCAA Division III, Division II, summer collegiate, and independent professional baseball — each time in a league where no woman had played before her.

The young girls who watched her pitch for the Dublin Leprechauns now have a reference point that did not exist five years ago. The field is big enough. She proved it.