Ever since Malaika Underwood first began playing Little League®, the slogan her local league Tee Ball team adopted has inspired her to always pursue her baseball dreams – “where the stars of tomorrow play today.”
Ms. Underwood’s passion for baseball at an early age helped turn that slogan into reality – making the Team USA Women’s Baseball National Team a record 11 times before she hung up her spikes and transitioned into a coaching role.
Before her successful run with Team USA, Ms. Underwood’s playing days began in Chollas Lake LL (San Diego, Calif.), where she quickly fell in love with baseball. For Ms. Underwood, the sport immediately became a staple in her life.
“I grew up in San Diego and baseball was just something everyone did,” said Ms. Underwood. “When you picked up a baseball, you not only just played Little League, but also sandlot style. There are a lot of people throughout my life; coaches, family members, and friends who really supported me in the journey, and I’m thankful for them.”
From a young age, as she rounded the bases on her local league field, Ms. Underwood knew she wanted to become the first female Major League Baseball player. With idols like Ila Borders and the Silver Bullets, an all-women’s baseball team that played against men’s teams, Ms. Underwood was inspired to never stop pursuing her dreams regardless of what people thought of girls playing baseball. She continued to play Little League Baseball up until the start of high school and was left with two options: switch to softball or battle for a spot on a high school team.
“I had never played softball, so I decided to stick with baseball and wrote a letter to a number of high schools coaches in the San Diego area where I could attend, just asking for a fair shot,” said Ms. Underwood. “I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do something like that, to seek out an opportunity at the high school level, had I not had just a wonderful experience playing Little League.”
Ms. Underwood eventually got her shot at La Jolla High School, where she played on the junior varsity team her first two years. By doing so, she became the first girl to make a high school baseball team in San Diego County. In high school, Ms. Underwood was a multi-sport athlete, also earning a spot on the girls’ basketball and volleyball teams to compete in all three seasons of the academic year. However, after completing her sophomore season, she set out with the goal of achieving more in baseball during her final two years of high school.
“If I wanted to continue to play, it became clear that I was going to need to make the varsity team. But, during my junior year, our basketball team was doing well, and we went deep into the playoffs, so I missed the tryouts for baseball. Fortunately, the head coach of the baseball team was the assistant coach of the girls’ basketball team, so he understood. But he said, ‘Okay, well, we’re going to have you come out to some of our preseason games, and that’s going to be your tryout,’” said Ms. Underwood. “During one of the preseason games, I can remember distinctly having an at bat, hitting a double down the right –field line, standing on second base, looking into the dugout, seeing my teammates cheering, and trying not to smile at second base. Feeling that moment of acceptance and knowing that I had earned this spot on that team in that moment, that was really special.”
After a memorable four years of high school baseball, Ms. Underwood assumed her days on the diamond were over. She spent four years playing volleyball on a scholarship at the University of North Carolina before attending graduate school. However, when she finished her studies in 2006, she learned about Team USA’s Women’s Baseball National Team and decided to try out.
“It was really eye opening to be in a position where it didn’t have that extra pressure of being the only girl or woman in the field,” said Ms. Underwood. “To be able to just focus on my performance, and to not have that extra pressure, was a seminal moment for me.”
After a successful tryout, Ms. Underwood played in her debut season in 2006. Over the next 17 years, Ms. Underwood shared the field with some of her heroes who played on the Silver Bullets teams, as well as many other influential women who experienced their own unique journeys on their way to reaching the national stage of competition. In addition to meeting and bonding with great players and people, Ms. Underwood’s teams saw plenty of success in international play. In her first season with the National Team, Team USA won gold at the 2006 World Cup. Nine years later, Ms. Underwood described the 2015 Pan-American Games, held in Toronto, as one of the most surreal experiences she has been a part of.
As years passed by and Ms. Underwood kept her spot on the National Team, her point of view on both baseball and life adjusted. No longer focusing mainly on her own performance on the field, she began to appreciate the little things of being in her position as a veteran player on the team. Additionally, she became a mother of two, which gave her more perspective as she began to wonder what would come next after her playing days.
“As I got later into my career, I almost became a player-coach in a way,” said Ms. Underwood. “Getting into coaching felt like a natural transition. To have the opportunity to continue to impact the game of baseball, but specifically, the USA Baseball Women’s National Team, is really meaningful for me.”
Perhaps the pinnacle of her lifelong journey as a woman in baseball culminated in early June at the 2024 Maria Pepe Little League Baseball® Legacy Series as Little League hosted the first-ever all-girls baseball games in both Lamade and Volunteer Stadium in celebration of 50 years of girls being allowed in the program. Additionally, Maria Pepe herself, one of the original Girls with Game, was honored with her enshrinement into the Little League® Hall of Excellence. During her time at the event, Ms. Underwood had the opportunity to meet and talk to Ms. Pepe, who helped open the door to gave her the opportunity to play baseball.
“There’s so much emotion in meeting Maria at the 2024 Maria Pepe Legacy Series that it is hard to put into words,” said Ms. Underwood. “She is the reason my name could be on a Little League roster. It doesn’t get any more meaningful than that. She is such an authentic person, and her willingness to share her story, to engage in such a deep way, even if only for small moments with these girls, has just been mind-blowing. Being able to see her see these girls run out onto Lamade Stadium, sitting right next to her, hearing her story, and having her be so open about how challenging it was for her 50 years ago when she had to give up the game that she loved, was wonderful.”
Ms. Underwood is involved with other organizations to continue to develop opportunities for girls to play baseball, pushing for it to be accepted that both girls can play baseball, and boys can play softball. She is set to serve as an Assistant Coach on Team USA’s Women’s Baseball National Team’s staff as the team prepares for the 2024 WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup, which will begin on July 28 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The U.S. will face Venezuela in their first game of the tournament and several former Little Leaguers will be featured on the roster, including the list below:
- Jamie Baum – Los Altos (Calif.) American LL
- Denae Benites – Mountain Ridge LL (Las Vegas, Nev.)
- Elise Berger – Champlain Valley LL (Shelburne, Vt.)
- Kate Blunt – Ladera Ranch (Calif.) LL
- Olivia Pichardo – Greenwich Village (N.Y.) LL
- Naomi Ryan – Central Chesterfield (Va.) LL
- Kelsie Whitmore – Temecula Valley (Calif.) National LL
NOTE: This Little League feature is a piece of the #GWG50 Celebration in 2024, with interviews of Girls with Game who graduated from Little League programs and continued to make an impact on female sports throughout their careers. To learn more about this initiative, visit LittleLeague.org/GWG50. The #GWG50 celebration is proudly supported by DICK’S Sporting Goods, a long-time Little League partner that is committed to creating opportunities for girls and women in sports and will be activating around key events and milestones this year.