Mar 24, 2009 9:46 pm US/Pacific
Female Exchange Student Taking On Boys' Baseball
TRACY, Calif. (CBS13) ―
A female foreign exchange student is breaking barriers on a local baseball field by playing high school ball with the boys.
The Delta Charter High School Dragons in Tracy have added a Japanese 16-year-old girl, Asuka Takenouche, to their starting lineup at second base, the only girl on the boys' team.
"It's kind of interesting to see the reaction of the other team when we take the field," said coach Steve Abercrombie. "She's better than some of the boys out here."
The boys don't intimidate Asuka, and her humble attitude makes her even more of a star. She says the biggest curve ball she's faced on the field is the language barrier.
"One time, I was crying in the field," she said. "Confusing, it's so hard."
Abercrombie says her English is getting better every day, and so are her skills on the field.
"I was surprised when she first came out at tryouts," he said. "I thought it was kind of a unique thing for her to kind of see what baseball is like, until I saw her field and then I realized I was kind of the beneficiary of that."
Asuka says she misses home, but she wants to stay in Tracy and continue playing baseball with the Delta Charter Dragons.
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