Galvanized by the success of baseball players Kelsie Whitmore and Olivia Pichardo, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School junior Maddie Tse knows no limits.
Just ask her what position she’ll play as a member of the Spartans’ varsity baseball team.
“I mainly play outfield but I’m a pitcher and I can catch. I’ve been catching in the bullpen. I also play third base. Anywhere they need me really,” she said.
She started playing baseball as an 8-year-old and developed her skills in the Burnt Hills youth baseball program. She’s played field hockey and was a kicker on the varsity football team for the Spartans, but baseball is her true love.
Making her high school varsity team was a goal she felt she could achieve through hard work playing along her longtime teammates, but that work is just beginning.
“I’m looking to hopefully play D-III baseball in college. But if not, I still want to play club baseball,” she said.
Why baseball?
At 5-foot-6 and 160 pounds, she’s small compared to the boys on varsity. And honestly she isn’t quite sure why she chose baseball and not softball as her primary sport.
“I kind of just fell in love with the game. At first I hated it,” she said. “I didn’t like it at all and then something just clicked and I can’t get enough of it.”
“I played softball when I was 6 or 7. It was just like T-ball,” she said.
Her parents signed her up for baseball the following year simply as a matter of family convenience. Her older brother Jackson was playing and her father, Victor, was deployed as an Army Reservist. Playing on the same fields would be easier for her mom, Sara, who was juggling parenting while working as a physician’s assistant.
“My brother was a big influence on my love for baseball. We played outside all…
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