11-year-old Minnesota girl crushing records on boys baseball team
An 11-year-old girl is putting up some serious numbers and writing records for a boys baseball team. But what's even more impressive is that she's fairly new to the game, having learned it only a few years ago.
Tina Tran is the only girl on this year's Coon Rapids Andover American League All-Star team, and some are calling her the best female baseball prospect to ever come out of the area. Last month, she crushed three home runs in one game.
“I don't recall anybody ever hitting three in a game,” a spectator said.
And hitting a homerun in this park isn’t a joke -- from home plate to the wall is 207 feet.
“The first one was really far so I was really proud of that,” Tran said.
Tran pitches, plays the outfield, the infield, and is ranked near the top in many statistical categories in her 11 to 12-year-old division.
Jason Osberg, the coach of Tran's team, says her power and speed make her one of the best female prospects he has ever seen. Tran's even drawn comparisons to another dominant girl by the name of Mo'ne Davis, who electrified the nation in the little league world series last year.
“She's a great ambassador for this little league program,” Osberg said.
This remarkable journey to the top started just four years ago here in her back yard.
“For some reason, she started to pick up the glove started to throw the ball to me, so I had to go get the glove to go play with her,” her dad, Vu Tran, said.
After immigrating to Andover from Vietnam, her dad taught her the game of baseball when she was 7-years-old. And because it's hard to find baseball leagues just for girls, he made her play with the boys.
“Well he dragged me to the sign ups, and helped me learn how to hit and learn how to throw,” she said.
Since then, she's gained respect from her teammates who don't treat her any differently. And she continues to prove all her doubters wrong -- “I really don't care because I will try to ignore them and keep on working,” she said.
Tonight, Tin'as team won 14-1. And she had 4 RBI to lead all players.