Athlete of the Week: Girl creating buzz around PALL; makes all-star team

Many people have passed by the Poway American Little League Minor A baseball fields and caught a glimpse of Elisa Marquez this season. They usually pause, stop and then stay a while.

Some of the attention is because Marquez, 11, is a girl playing with all boys. But most of it is because Marquez is a girl striking out a lot of boys and then getting in the batter’s box and ripping base hits all over the field.

“She probably was the best fielder and pitcher and one of the best hitters in Minor A,” said Paul Klepsch, who is the vice president of PALL and coached Marquez on the Minor A Yankees this past season. “She did awesome.”

So awesome that she became the first girl in at least the last 15 years — and maybe ever — to be selected to a PALL all-star team. She is playing with the PALL 11-year-old All-Star Team, which opened District 31 play Sunday with a 13-0 win over Poway National. Marquez tossed some three innings of shutout baseball.

“It feels good to make all-stars,” said Marquez, who was throwing a baseball around with her two older brothers, Nathanael, 15, and Daniel, 13, during an interview last week. “The team is nice. They treat me as one of the teammates and I like that.”

Playing baseball with the boys is no big deal for Marquez. She started playing in the street with her older brothers and the neighbors when she was 5. It wasn’t until last year, though, that she played organized baseball. It was her first time playing any organized sport.

“I knew from when we first started tossing the ball she had talent,” Nathanael said, proudly. “I had one of those bad gloves, so when she threw the ball it would sting when I caught it.”

That right arm of hers averaged over two strikeouts per inning for the Yankees during the regular season. She had a .500 batting average, a .708 slugging percentage and a .636 on-base percentage. The Yankees went 22-2 en route to the league title, but Marquez did much more than hit, pitch and play defense.

“She was always picking the players up when they were down,” Klepsch said. “You would always hear her in the dugout talking a player up after they made an out. She would always try to find a silver lining.”

That helped Marquez, who has played shortstop, catcher, first base, second base and outfield to go along with pitching, earn the prestigious Cameron McAfee Award, which is a sportsmanship award.

Each team in the league selects a player that has best exhibited the qualities of good sportsmanship — positive attitude, enthusiasm and cooperation — over the course of the season.

“I got (those traits) from my mom (Anne) and dad (Michael),” Marquez said with a smile.

And the baseball talent? Well, her brothers take credit for that.

“Everyone asks where she gets it,” Nathanael said. “We are like ‘we worked with her a little bit.’”

Softball tends to eventually steal away the talented girls from baseball. But Marquez has lasted in the sport longer than many and she has no plans on ever making the switch.

“It will always be baseball,” said Marquez, who claims the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres as her favorite professional teams and Buster Posey as her favorite professional player. “I have never played softball. I don’t like it.”

But she does like playing baseball. And she is out showing everyone just how great she is at it.