Think the Great American Pastime is meant to be played just by men? Then you haven't met Katie Bason!

Not only has Bason played on Doubleday Field, arguably one the most hallowed baseball fields in America, but she has also garnered one of the highest awards that a female baseball player could ever accomplishing by being selected to the under-21 Women's Baseball League's Team America.

Bason, a sophomore at Wake Forest, played this summer for the Chicago Storm, a member of the Great Lake's Women's Baseball League. After encouragement from her teammates, Beson decided to try out for the women's national baseball team. At the end of this summer she traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y., where she competed against more than 50 women for a spot on the roster. A total of 22 women were chosen for Team America, including Bason, who was selected to be catcher.

The tryouts for the National Team were held on Doubleday Field, where the game of baseball was supposedly created by Abner Doubleday in 1839. Doubleday Field adjoins The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Undoubtedly, playing on Doubleday Field was a dream come true for Bason. "To play baseball on the field where it was invented in the shadows of the Mecca of baseball was incredible," Bason gushed. "It felt like I was part of my all time favorite movie, A League of Their Own, when they play on Doubleday Field."

No one in Bason's family can remember a time when she didn't love baseball. As soon as she was able to hold a ball and a bat she was running around playing baseball with her brother. At age four, Bason began playing in a local recreational girl's league of T-ball and then later coaches-pitch. Around age nine all of Katie's female teammates began playing softball. But for Bason it was too late. She was already in love with the game of baseball and she made it clear that she would continue to follow her passion for the game.

"I told her that as long as she could physically compete with the boys, she had my complete support," Katie's mother, Carol Bason said. "Baseball and softball are two very different games and I understood her love for the game she'd grown up with."

"My parents told me that I could play with the boys until I couldn't keep up anymore or I just didn't want to ... whichever came first," Bason said. "I don't think they knew that neither would happen before I graduated from high school!"

Bason attended Carlisle High in Martinsville, Va., where she not only played on the men's varsity baseball team, but also started all four years as a third baseman and catcher. "Playing high school baseball was an incredible and invaluable experience for me," Bason said. "I learned patience, tolerance, and the skill of selective hearing É On the field, I was treated no differently than any of the boys, and was expected to perform with the same intensity and confidence as my teammates."

Bason's zest for the game did, however, come with a price. "I ran into some opposition of course," Bason said, as she recalled times where her gender almost prevented her continued play. "My high school played numerous military schools that were very adverse to the idea of a girl playing a so called boys' sport," Bason said. Instead of letting anything stop her, Bason simply used her impressive skills to silence her opposition. "Rather than respond to their initial jeering, joking and sexual innuendoes, I found that É all I had to do was throw someone out or strike them out and that was pretty much the end of it," she said."During her freshman year of high school," Bason's mother said, "she tolerated teasing and cruel remarks. She was hit in the batter's box about 12 times. She only played baseball to the best of her ability."

While Bason seriously considered playing softball in college, she eventually decided that Wake Forest would be the right place for her, baseball or not. As a freshman she began playing with the club softball team to keep her love for the game satiated. Little did she ever dream that her baseball playing days were far from over.

Katie Bason is nothing less than ecstatic when asked about her upcoming opportunities with Team America. "I thought that it was absolutely incredible to find women who played with the same passion that I do," Bason said. "We all had one thing in common ... we would do anything to play baseball. Regarding gender issues, I have seen a lot of girls fight a lot of battles. All I have ever wanted to do was play baseball. If that meant breaking gender barriers, then so be it. Thankfully, I was always at least given a chance to prove myself."