Katie Reyes Becomes first gamewinner in LL WS history!

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Katie Reyes becomes first girl gamewinner at Little League WS - Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:30 am EDT
Katie Reyes becomes first girl gamewinner at Little League WS

By 'Duk

For those folks who didn't know that girls can play in the Little League World Series, here's another revelation that might come as bit of a shock.
The ladies can win games for their teams, too.
In what tournament organizers said was most likely a LLWS first, Katie Reyes hit a game-winning two-RBI single in Canada's 14-13 win over Germany on Tuesday afternoon in Williamsport, Pa.
Fifteen girls have played in the LLWS since 1984, but apparently none had logged the game's top highlight until Reyes had three hits and three RBIs on Tuesday. She also caught the game's final out at first base.
Move over, Amanda Whurlitzer.
Youth baseball has a new leading lady.

"I was excited. I was shaking," the quiet, 13-year-old girl told the Associated Press.

Reyes wasn't the only girl to make the trip to this year's LLWS. Bryn Stonehouse of Saudi Arabia also participated in the games and the two girls teamed up as roommates.
The last time that two girls were in the LLWS was 2004. For a few more facts about girls reaching the biggest stage in Little League, continue below ...

• Reyes began playing baseball about six years ago after watching her brother and she's never played softball. She hit a game-winning home run in the British Columbia provincial championships earlier this summer.
• Reyes' team from "hardscrabble streets of Vancouver's east side" made national headlines in Canada, partly because traditional Canadian Little League powers come from what the Globe and Mail describes as "leafier locations."
• As you might be able to tell by her name, Stonehouse isn't a native Saudi Arabian. She was born in Texas and moved to the Middle East with her family four years ago.
• Kathryn Johnston is generally regarded as the first girl to play Little League baseball. Back in 1950, she tucked her hair under her hat, adopted the nickname "Tubby" and joined the Kings Dairy Little League team in Corning, N.Y.
• In 1984, Belgium's Victoria Roche became the first girl to play in the LLWS.
• Sadly, Reyes and Stonehouse are done with their history-making turns in Williamsport. Both Canada and Saudi Arabia were eliminated during pool play and are headed home.
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