The late summer sun hangs heavy over Flowers Park in New Rochelle, casting long shadows across the infield dirt where seventeen-year-old Yedlimar de Jesus takes her warmup pitches. Her ponytail swings through the strike zone like a metronome keeping time with history itself. Each pitch—a 69-mile-per-hour fastball followed by that devastating curveball—carries the weight of something bigger than baseball.
This isn’t just another fall scrimmage. This is revolution wrapped in a Monroe University Mustangs uniform.
De Jesus has become the first woman in Monroe University’s history to make the men’s baseball team, a groundbreaking achievement that extends beyond New York state lines. She’s the first Puerto Rican woman to play in a men’s baseball league in the United States, carrying the dreams of her island home on her right arm.
“I’m very grateful for it because it’s something that I can open doors for other women in baseball programs,” de Jesus told reporters at News 12 Westchester, her voice steady with the same confidence she shows on the mound.
Boricua Pride on the Diamond
Baseball courses through Puerto Rico’s veins like the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. It’s the island’s lifeblood, its passion, its identity. Since Hiram Bithorn broke into the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs in 1942, Puerto Rico has produced 270 major-league players, including immortals like Roberto Clemente, Yadier Molina, and Roberto Alomar.
But those 270 players? All men.
Until now.
De Jesus grew up in that rich baseball tradition, where kids learn to swing before they learn to ride bikes, where summer evenings echo with the crack of bats and the roar of crowds. She started playing at age five with her brother and family, falling in love with the game the way most Puerto Rican children do—completely and irreversibly.
“All my family members are athletes, so it was kind of a family member thing,” de Jesus explained. “My brother started playing baseball, so I just followed his path.”
But following that path meant blazing an entirely new trail.
Understanding de Jesus’s achievement requires understanding the profound connection between Puerto Rico and baseball. The sport first arrived on the island in the early 1890s via Cuban immigrants, eventually becoming the island’s official sport and producing generations of world-class talent.
Puerto Rico has produced five Hall of Famers—Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Alomar, Ivan Rodriguez, and Edgar Martinez—each carrying the pride of la isla del encanto with every swing, every pitch, every diving catch.
Now de Jesus carries that same pride, but with an added dimension. She’s not just representing Puerto Rico on the baseball diamond—she’s expanding what it means to be a Puerto Rican baseball player. She’s showing young Boricuas that the legacy doesn’t belong to men alone, that the diamond is big enough for everyone with the talent and determination to compete.
Her teammates from the Arecibo Lobas back home understand this significance. The Lobas have dominated the Puerto Rican Women’s Baseball League with 13 championships in 15 seasons, proving that women’s baseball on the island is thriving. De Jesus is simply taking that excellence to the next level.
The Mound Less Pitched
Before arriving at Monroe University, de Jesus starred in her rookie season with the Arecibo Lobas of the Puerto Rican Women’s Baseball League, where she didn’t allow a run out of the bullpen while striking out 11 batters. She attended the prestigious Albergue Olímpico and AOBA Baseball Academy, honing her craft against the best young talent Puerto Rico had to offer.
The softball route would have been easier. Scholarships more plentiful. Resistance less fierce. But de Jesus, nicknamed “La Niña” (the kid) by her teammates, had different plans.
When Monroe University head coach John Torres approached her parents after seeing her at a college baseball showcase, his message was crystal clear: “The most important thing from that conversation was that ‘she does not want to play softball; she does not want to play softball.'”
Torres saw something special in de Jesus—not just her 69-mph fastball and soft curveball, but her character. The coach said he “liked her character, her talent and just the way she carried herself amongst the guys”, qualities that transcend gender and speak to the heart of what makes a ballplayer great.
According to her scouting report, de Jesus can “fill up the strike zone with a 69-mile-per-hour fastball and a soft curveball” and showcases versatility by playing the infield when not pitching. Her hands are considered her best defensive tool, and at the plate, she’s a right-handed hitter with a knack for line drives up the middle.
Brotherhood, Sisterhood, Baseball
Walk into the Monroe University baseball clubhouse, and you won’t find de Jesus sitting alone in a corner. You’ll find her laughing with teammates, talking strategy, being one of the guys—which is exactly how she wants it.
“They treat me like another player and like a sister. And that’s something that I appreciate a lot, and I give them the same respect because this has to be mutual,” de Jesus shared in a video posted by the university.
Teammate Harlen Ferreiras captured the locker room sentiment perfectly: “It is crazy because I’ve seen it before, but not in person. I feel like it’s going to be amazing because she’s going to teach us a lot.”
That mutual respect didn’t happen by accident. It’s earned through professionalism, through grinding in practice, through showing up day after day and proving you belong. De Jesus doesn’t ask for special treatment. She asks for the same opportunity every ballplayer deserves—to prove herself between the lines.
The university shared a video on Instagram featuring Bad Bunny announcing that a Boricua is making history in the United States by joining the baseball team at Monroe University, a powerful endorsement that resonated across the Puerto Rican community and beyond.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Female Players
De Jesus’s impact extends far beyond the NJCAA Division I baseball field where she competes. Every time she takes the mound, every time she fires a strike past a batter, she’s rewriting the narrative about what’s possible for young girls who love baseball.
Her message to young female athletes is powerful and direct: “Girls, if you have a dream, don’t say no to yourself”.
Those words carry extraordinary weight in a sport that has historically pushed women toward softball, that has questioned whether they can compete, that has made them justify their presence on fields they helped build.
The history of women fighting for space in baseball is long and complicated. Organizations like Baseball For All have documented 16 women who played college baseball prior to 2022, though none at the Division I level before Olivia Pichardo made history at Brown University. Trailblazers like Ila Borders became the first woman to pitch in a men’s college baseball game in 1994, and Kelsie Whitmore became the first woman to join an MLB partner league when she signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks in 2022.
De Jesus now joins that exclusive lineage of barrier-breakers, carrying the torch forward while lighting new paths for others to follow.
La Niña’s Legacy
De Jesus’s journey reflects a growing movement in baseball. In recent years, women have been breaking barriers at unprecedented rates—from Rachel Balkovec becoming the first female Minor League manager in 2022 to Jenny Cavnar becoming the first woman to serve as a club’s primary play-by-play voice in MLB history.
Each achievement builds on the last, creating momentum that makes the next breakthrough slightly less impossible. When Olivia Pichardo made NCAA Division I history, she made it easier for de Jesus to walk through the doors at Monroe. And de Jesus, in turn, will make it easier for the next young woman who chooses baseball over softball, who refuses to let gender determine her sport.
The transformation isn’t complete—far from it. But the foundations are being poured, brick by brick, pitch by pitch, game by game.
As fall ball season progresses at Monroe University, Yedlimar de Jesus continues writing her story—one inning at a time. Whether starting, relieving, or closing, she’s ready for whatever role Coach Torres needs her to fill.
But her real role extends beyond pitch counts and earned run averages. She’s a role model. A pioneer. A reminder that excellence doesn’t discriminate, that talent doesn’t check gender at the gate, that dreams don’t come with asterisks.
For every little girl in Puerto Rico watching de Jesus pitch, for every young athlete told she should switch to softball, for every daughter of the Caribbean who wants to follow Roberto Clemente’s footsteps to the major leagues, La Niña is showing them the way.
The path isn’t easy. It never has been for trailblazers. But as de Jesus fires strike after strike past batters who tower over her five-foot frame, as she earns the respect of teammates through performance and professionalism, as she carries the flag of Puerto Rico and women’s baseball forward with equal pride, she’s proving something profound.
She’s proving that baseball, at its heart, belongs to everyone who loves it enough to fight for it.
And Yedlimar de Jesus? La Niña?
She’s just getting started.
📸 Monroe University Athletics Instagram – Follow for updates on Yedlimar’s season
