Montreat (N.C.) baseball coach Michael Bender expected some publicity when he offered a small athletic scholarship to a female pitcher.
He didn’t anticipate a frenzy.
Even though right-hander Marti Sementelli hasn’t signed a letter of intent to play for the Cavaliers, Bender said the story was mentioned on the bottom ticker of CNN before he spoke to anyone at the network.
“I think the media probably got hold of this before they should have,” said Bender, Montreat’s second-year coach. “I’m not trying to skirt away from this because I have given her this opportunity, and I knew that some of this would come with it. It’s hard because I didn’t really want to be known around Asheville for this; I kind of wanted to be known around Asheville for playing pretty good baseball.”
Instead, Bender said he’s received unpleasant emails from Montreat alumni as well as had current players threaten to transfer because he extended a collegiate opportunity to Sementelli, from Birmingham High in Lake Balboa, Calif.
In March, Sementelli and Ghazaleh Sailors of San Marcos High in Santa Barbara, Calif., started against each other. That’s believed to be the first U.S. high school baseball game that had girls as the starting pitchers. Sementelli got the victory as Birmingham prevailed 6-1.
Montreat is a private, Christian-affiliated school with a total enrollment of about 1,100 in the mountains of western North Carolina. It has an NAIA-affiliated athletics program. The baseball team finished the 2011 season 18-31. Bender is 35-63 in his two seasons.
Though he’s also had positive feedback, the volume of media interest surprised Bender because Sementelli has no guarantee of even making the varsity. Bender said that as a general rule, Montreat freshmen start on the developmental team until they earn a varsity spot.
“We’re not the only school that’s offered her a scholarship,” Bender said. “I’m giving her an extremely low amount of money to come here and play JV baseball. The level of high school baseball she plays in California is better than the JV level you play at small Christian colleges. I don’t mean the varsity level; I mean the JV level.”
Sementelli did not return a call to her house Monday. She played on the USA Baseball women’s national team in 2008 and 2010 and is listed at 5-2 and 115 pounds on Birmingham’s roster on maxpreps.com.
Several current Montreat players reached Monday by the Citizen-Times said they knew very little about the situation and hadn’t talked to any players who’ve considered quitting the team.
“It’s not the color of the skin, and it’s not the gender that’s going to determine a good baseball player,” said Montreat catcher Brent Rowe, a rising sophomore. “I think it’s a cool opportunity for her, for the school and for baseball because it’s never been really determined that a girl can play.”
Also excited for Sementelli’s opportunity is Ashley Bratcher, director of the women’s national team for USA Baseball. She estimates 1,000 girls are playing high school baseball and said most who play beyond that are on club teams in college.
“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Bratcher said. “I know that from an early age, a lot of athletes start playing baseball. Then there’s this sort of 12-year-old funnel where, ’OK, girls, you go play softball, and boys, you keep playing baseball.’ And I know for players — particularly like Marti — they like baseball.
“She’s always been the only girl on her team. So this is a chance for her to keep playing the sport she loves.”
Bender wouldn’t reveal the exact scholarship amount he offered but said, “For a school that costs $33,000, it’s chump change.”
That didn’t prevent alumni from sending him a sharply worded email.
” ’What kind of program am I running by offering a female a baseball scholarship?’ ” Bender said, recalling a sentiment in the email. “A lot of people question my integrity through all this just for the simple, ignorant, simpleton fact that they can’t look past that she’s a female.”
Bender insists Sementelli’s skills warrant a college chance regardless of her gender. He specifically likes her curveball and change-up that he described as a “palm ball.”
Asked whether the criticism was making him reconsider the offer, he said, “No, no, no, no, no, no. I’m going to stand tall.”
“I’m going to do it. At the same time, I was raised by a woman. I was raised not to think in this prejudicial fashion to think that women can’t play baseball. … If anybody has looked up this female on YouTube, they can see this woman knows how to pitch. She’s not just a girl. She’s a baseball player. She struck out 14 in 22 innings. That’s good stats; I don’t really care where you’re at.”
