Video: Women pitcher first ever to play for male baseball team at Canada Games on Welland diamond

Published August 9, 2022 at 9:29 am

Jaida Lee, shown here playing with the Women's U16 team last summer, became the first women ever to play for the Newfoundland-Labrador men's team at the Canada Games yesterday in Welland. (Photo: Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games)

The Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games gave crowds a little taste of history yesterday (August 8) on the baseball diamonds in Welland.

Jaida Lee, a 16-year-old from St. John’s, became the first-ever woman to play for the men’s baseball team in Canada Games history.

Also the Newfoundland-Labrador flag-bearer for the games, Lee pitched a scoreless fourth inning for her side before being pulled in the fifth as the east coast squad went down 17-7 to Alberta.

It was such a monumental moment that the baseball she used is going to be enshrined in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont.

When she’s on the mound, the teen brings the heat with a 78 mile-per-hour fastball and a curveball that’s closing in on 60 mph.

Previously a star on the Newfoundland-Labrador Under-16 Women’s baseball squad, she helped take her team to the title at last summer’s Atlantic under-16 female championship in Summerside, PEI.