Livermore’s Arwen McCullough has spent most of her life playing baseball with the boys; now she and women across the world finally have a professional league of their own.
Arwen McCullough, a Granada High School graduate and current senior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, was recently selected by the San Francisco team in the inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League draft as she visits her alma mater baseball field in Livermore, Calif.
, on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. Arwen McCullough represents the first wave of hope for young female baseball players in 72 years. That’s how long it’s been since the All-American Girls Baseball League, of “A League of Their Own” fame, ceased to exist. McCullough, a Livermore native and right-handed pitcher, was selected by the San Francisco franchise in the final round of thein November. There are no guarantees she’ll make the 15-player roster later this summer, but it’s a challenge – and opportunity – that until now, McCullough and countless other women’s baseball hopefuls couldn’t even dream about. , on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. The 22-year-old has been an outsider on boys’ teams much of her baseball life. Until she joined her first women’s-only team in 2016 – with the Baseball for All organization – and felt the isolation lift. “Oh my God,” McCullough said. “It opened a whole new world. Wait, there are people just like me who play baseball?”“We support each other; we build each other up,” McCullough said. “There’s an underlying sense of camaraderie in that we all have a shared experience of being the only woman on men’s teams. “Knowing that we’ve all had the same or very similar emotional experiences builds a sense of belonging that you can’t replicate anywhere else.” Long ago, McCullough learned a valuable trait: the ability to rely on herself to make things happen. It began during the 2010 World Series, as her beloved Giants faced the Texas Rangers. Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Matt Cain … Five games.“My mom said she’d never seen a kid with ADHD sit still for that long,” McCullough said. In the wake of the Giants’ first world championship in the Bay Area, the McCulloughs signed their only child up for the Junior Giants and then Little League. Arwen’s father, Steven, wasn’t a baseball fan, but learned how to throw and hit right alongside Arwen., on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. Arwen found she could throw more accurately than most of the boys and had more control. The coaches wanted her on the mound, “and I began to love it.”However, as she grew older, it became a bigger issue. The inevitable question of “When are you going to switch to softball?” became more frequent.Arwen found that coaches treated her with a double standard. If she made a mistake or error, she was benched or criticized. If a boy did the same thing, he was given a second chance.In fifth grade, she joined Livermore’s Total Player Center training facility, founded by Jason Sekany, who would eventually become the pitching coach for the U.S. women’s national team development program. “It was somewhat unique to have a girl playing, but not unheard of,” Sekany said. “But we’re always excited to see players who are passionate about the game, and she definitely had a tremendous passion for baseball.” McCullough is a perfectionist. She arrived daily at TPC to work on her mechanics – on the mound and in the batter’s box. She joined a travel baseball team, first as a reluctant guest, and then as a full-fledged rotational weapon. Not many pitchers her age could hit their spots and keep batters off-balance by changing speeds and locations. She loved to see a batter’s overconfidence of watching a girl on the mound end with a strikeout or a weak chopper in the infield. On the mound, “I feel like I have so much power,” she said. “When I get out there, I’m like, I run this freaking game. You’re going to bend to my will, and I’m going to do what I want. “It’s an intoxicating feeling: I pace the game, you’re at my whim. When you’re a pitcher, you know exactly what I’m talking about, that confidence of going up there.” McCullough’s baseball evolution included the good and the bad. She remembers being sized up by a coach at one tryout and watching him whisper something to a male player. Then that player joined her to play catch and threw at her as hard as he could., on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. Sometimes, teammates would stick up for her against the verbal barbs from opposing dugouts. Sometimes they wouldn’t. But through it all, McCullough never strayed from her desire to play baseball, even when that path was blocked. She played softball her final three years at Livermore High after being cut from the freshman baseball team and was recruited to play college softball. But she had other ideas.What stood out in Tony Vitello’s first series as SF Giants’ manager?More than just Forever Giants have gone through San Francisco to CooperstownAs a freshman at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, McCullough went to work. She posted flyers and created a Google interest form. She bought T-shirts with her own money, advertised at club fairs– “No experience necessary.” She got a university sanction to start the club, field time, equipment and the use of a shed. McCullough’s first “recruiting” class consisted of just three players. But eventually, the club caught on, and last spring, the Mustangs won the Baseball for All Women’s College Club Championship. “She was never afraid of failure, never afraid of resistance,” Sekany said. “There was never a roadblock that could stop her. “We talk with our athletes all the time about the fact that this game’s going to tell you ‘no’ a lot. She’s been told ‘no’ more than just about anybody and has adapted to that and overcome it. She continues to not only find opportunities, but to create them.” When word that the WPBL was forming, McCullough and three of her teammates paid their own way to Washington, D.C., to attend a mass tryout. In all, 600 players spent four days in August at Nationals Park, the home of the Washington Nationals, trying to secure one of 120 draft spots. Among the group was Mo’ne Davis, the first girl to throw a shutout in Little League World Series history, and Kelsie Whitmore, a veteran of five seasons as a pitcher in men’s pro independent leagues, including the Oakland Ballers. McCullough took the attitude of: “I’m going to go in here, and regardless of what happens, I am part of history. I’m going to work the hardest on the field, and I’m going to have the most fun. I’m going to be loud, and I’m going to hustle my ass off.”McCullough, hosting a draft party in San Luis Obispo, was selected in the sixth and final round, with the 105th overall pick, by the San Francisco franchise. Shortstop Kaija Bazzano from Sebastopol – and a former teammate at Cal Poly – was the only other Bay Area native picked , also by San Francisco. Overall, 10 countries plus Puerto Rico were represented among the draftees. , on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. McCullough is a pitcher who also brings Team USA experience. The four teams – including Boston, Los Angeles, and New York – are expected to play the entire league schedule in a central location in Illinois. The league won’t begin its inaugural season until August 1, shortly after the Women’s Baseball World Cup. And as the major leaguers were heading to Arizona for spring training, the WPBL draftees hadn’t been told how they might compete for roster spots. The players have their own information network, and there has been talk that only players taken in the first three rounds will make the teams, with others sent to a developmental camp or on barnstorming tours. Arwen, while frustrated at the lack of transparency, understands as well as anyone how difficult starting a baseball team – let alone a league – from scratch can be.El Niño is on the way: What that means for California’s weatherPleasanton: Four-bedroom home goes for $3.3 million Oakland man charged with torching store for showing customers’ video of his brother being killed, authorities saySheriff raids San Pablo animal sacrifice chamber full of goat heads and decapitation toolsDear Abby: I’d barely moved in when this debris got thrown into my yard
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
SF Symphony season is all about the BaySF Symphony will once again feature a suite of guest conductors as it searches for a music director
Read more »
Why California’s Bay Area is America’s natural wine hubKnown for its offbeat culture and penchant for organic produce, northern California’s Bay Area has turned into the country’s capital of natural wine, fostering a scene of unfussy pairings and relaxed bars.
Read more »
East Bay woman sentenced to prison for elder theftQingyun Chen of San Leandro was accused of online scams targeting a Greenbrae resident and 9 other victims.
Read more »
Bay Shore woman convicted of murder for killing man who parked in front of her homeSuffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced 23-year-old Kayla Alvarenga was found guilty of murder for orchestrating the killing of Linver Ortiz Ponce on Sept. 17, 2022.
Read more »
Iran War Forces Energy-Saving in East Asia, Middle East: ‘Imminent Danger’Some countries are rolling out energy-saving measures as the Iran war disrupts global oil and gas supplies.
Read more »
New concert series in East Palo Alto shines a light on Bay Area musiciansEPACENTER kicks off its Sunset Concerts on May 9.
Read more »