High school senior Lillian Martineau made the jump from baseball to softball last summer, having spent her entire life playing with and against boys. The Georgia Tech softball commit sits down with Sporting Her’s Jeff Cheshire to tell her extraordinary story.
When Lillian Martineau finally made the switch, it was on her own terms. She was just 12 years old when the male-dominated baseball system first tried to force her out. Over the next five years she found herself having to prove she belonged every time she took the field. And through that, she survived. And she thrived. Martineau even went somewhat viral in her efforts. She amassed a Twitter following which enabled her to very publicly break down stereotypes, and be a voice for girls in the sport.
It was thought she was one of the only girls, potentially the only girl, playing high school baseball in the state of Connecticut. Her goal for the majority of that time had been to continue through to college – which she would likely have been able to at a division two or three level, had she taken that path.
In the end, the lure of softball won out. A less than desirable experience on her high school baseball team, the constant battles of stereotyping, combined with the opportunities softball would bring, helped sway her. After a short period playing both sports in travel ball over summer, it is softball she has turned to in her senior year at Lewis Mills High School. It was not a decision she took lightly, and there was a struggle in her mind as to whether she was giving up. But in the end, a change in mindset, and the fact she was going to upgrade herself, spoke volumes.
”It was such a struggle,” Martineau said. “At first, I was like ‘did I do everything for nothing?’ Am I letting my parents down? Am I letting my coaches down?”
”That was very big for me. I wanted to make not just myself happy, but all the people who put time into me happy. I just didn’t want to disappoint anybody.”
”Even with Twitter. I have this big Twitter following [about 6000 followers] and they’re looking at me to play baseball, and if I don’t play they’re not going to watch me.”
”After I played my first two softball tournaments I was like ‘I’m ready to switch’. I was like ‘I’ve played, I know what it’s like’. It’s nothing embarrassing to switch. Softball’s still an incredibly difficult sport. [Before] I almost looked at it as a downgrade. But it’s not, I’m upgrading myself.”
”While I could have fought for a division two or division three baseball spot, now I’m playing at a power five school where I’m getting an amazing education, which was also huge for me. I think with playing softball those worries and that battle started going away.”
It was at that second tournament, just weeks into her softball career with travel team Fury Platinum, that Georgia Tech began recruiting Martineau. She eventually committed to the Atlantic Coast Conference school, where she will play as a utility next season. Yet had things gone differently, she might have been forced to make that switch five years earlier. Martineau had grown up playing baseball, initially because her town did not have a little league softball team.
I am extremely excited to announce my commitment to continue my academics and athletics at Georgia Tech! While the journey has been long, I am blessed to be where I am today and to have the people in my life that I do. Thank you to all of my coaches and teammates for your support pic.twitter.com/fBfujczRHj
— Lillian Martineau (@Lilli_Martineau) August 6, 2023
It became her passion. She had no interest in switching to softball. She just wanted to play baseball. And in those early years, no-one blinked an eye. That was until she went to middle school. She had gone to get her blue card from the nurse, to say she was physically fit to try out for her sport, but returned to class in tears.
”I think she was taken aback that I said baseball and not softball,” Martineau recalls. “She was like ‘are you sure that’s what you’re going for?’. Basically she was like ‘I don’t think I can give this to you, because it’s for baseball’.”
“I literally went back to class crying. It was social studies and I was crying at my desk. My teachers, I don’t know if they didn’t notice, or didn’t really know what was going on.”
”They were like ‘it’s okay’. But to me it wasn’t okay. I’d been playing the sport since first, second grade and someone’s making me quit. That doesn’t make any sense. Why are they making me all of a sudden stop? Throughout the years it’s been fine, why are they making me stop?”
A meeting with the school’s higher powers followed. A law protected female athletes in these situations and Martineau was allowed to try out – with a third party evaluator present, ensuring she got a fair trial. She made the team. But that was not the end of it. She endured comments from other kids and parents, particularly those who had not made the team, as to why she should not be there and why she should be playing softball. She admits having that evaluator there was the first time it had felt ”weird” being a girl playing baseball. That feeling only grew in school ball as the years went on, although not so much in travel ball.
That was the start of a battle she has fought ever since. It was not so much her team mates in latter years – they just treated her as one of their group, and became some of her closest friends. Getting taken seriously by outsiders, though, was a constant struggle. She would get stares from confused players, coaches and parents during warm-ups. She would endure jokes from opponents about getting her number or social media – which was especially awkward while her father was one of her coaches, although her team mates helped her brush it off. It was not until the game began – and she started getting hits, making plays and, while she was still pitching, striking boys out – did they begin to take her seriously.
”It was frustrating at times. I don’t want to have to prove myself to be taken seriously.
”The fact I’m on the field, you should be taking me as a serious athlete without me having to do anything to prove myself.””That was one of the hardest things as a female playing in a male dominated sport. You’re constantly having to prove yourself to show that you’re worthy of being on the field, when you’ve proven yourself 100 times before.”
”Every game I had to prove myself. That’s something that’s nice about softball now. I don’t have to prove my worth anymore, I just go out there and showcase my skills.”
”That’s a big difference in mentality. They might create a similar outcome, but for me there’s a big difference in the mentality of feeling the pressure to do something, rather than a want. I want to show how great I am.”
It was not just opponents that she dealt with that, either.
”Let’s say I had a bad game, this was especially true in high school . . . If I had a bad game it would be like ‘this is another reason girls shouldn’t be playing baseball, this is another reason why you should switch to softball, this is another reason why he’s going to start over you next game, blah blah blah and the list goes on’.”
”Other people on the team got so many more chances to fail than I did. Which isn’t fair, because it’s such a sport of failure. People say it all the time and they don’t execute it. It’s a sport of failure. You fail more times than you succeed and you’re still great. And I think people lose sight of that.”
It became a large part of why she began the transition to softball, following her junior high school season. Yet she believes she is a far better softball player for her years in baseball. Few would work harder than the utility infielder – it was something she simply had to do to keep up with the physicality of playing against boys. She would go home after practice, and continue practicing for another hour and a half. She would find time in her schedule, time that did not really exist, to add in more – even if just 10 minutes of speed work, or plyometrics among her day. She went through a bulk, not to gain an advantage, but just to maintain parity. She plays basketball for her school too, mostly because she enjoys it, but also as a way to enhance her athleticism
In the end, that too became harder and harder to keep up with, especially when boys who had never been to the gym were turning up and lifting more than her. It allowed her to hold her own, though. And it leaves her well-placed now she is no longer at a biological disadvantage. Likewise she developed mental toughness in the baseball environment, something she built on with former Major League player, and current Los Angeles Angels mental strength coaching consultant Brandon Guyer.
Certainly the switch did not come without its adjustments. Slightly different rules and different pitches, notably the rise ball, took some getting used to. There were the different cultures of boys and girls teams – baseball is littered with swearing and inappropriate nicknames, whereas softball is not, Martineau has noted. The warm-up routines she found different – bat weights are common practice in baseball, not at all in softball. Different ball, different bat, different field dimensions. That was all noticeable during gameplay. In practice, she keeps things largely the same.
Away T swings. Easy and focused. pic.twitter.com/Nf5lUmmzor
— Lillian Martineau (@Lilli_Martineau) January 31, 2024
And while her journey to Georgia Tech will now look different to how she intended, her job is largely done in her battle for equality. She showed girls can play baseball, can play sport with boys, right through to the 18U and high school level. She tweets regularly, showing what she was doing to keep up, while providing inspiration and advice to other girls.
” . . . I was like there can be more to this thing than just recruiting,” she said of her social media presence. I can help people along the way. I can explain why I do what I do, maybe fight some stereotypical things, without having to debate someone, because that’s not what I intend to do on social media. But to make my message and my purpose as clear as possible was an important goal of mine”
“It makes me so happy, honestly.There was this one time this young girl from Bristol came to one of my indoor travel practices, she asked of course to come. She was debating between softball and baseball, she was younger… I could tell she loved it and had so much fun. The fact I can do that for a lot of other girls, not necessarily in person, but through what I do online, means a lot. I genuinely believe people should have a choice with what sport they want to play and it should be their choice and no-one else’s.”
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