Originally Appeared on VYPE

HOUSTON – Delaney Dunham loves playing baseball.

The past three summers, Dunham has played for the Houston Athletics – a select team baseball organization – and this spring she will suit up for the first time with the Barbers Hill High School sophomore baseball team.

"I just like how it's so dynamic," Delaney said about baseball. "I don't have to be good at one thing. I can be good at first base, pitcher and hit the ball. It's multiple things."

For Barbers Hill coach David Denny, the 15-year-old freshman is the first girl to make a roster in his coaching tenure.

"I've had [girls] try out before but have never made it," Denny said. "She will make it. Without a doubt she will be around as long as she chooses to be around."

Denny first saw Delaney during the summer as an eighth grader playing long toss in a field at Baytown Lee.

He knew then that she was good just from watching her throw from a distance. She looked like "a natural".

Once he saw her take the mound there was no doubt in his mind she'd fit in on the roster.

"Watching her this summer she mixes right in," Denny said. "The guys respect her, they know that she can play. She's not just here because she's a female; she's here because she's a good baseball player and a good athlete.

"She's got a good curveball, she throws strikes and she competes. For any freshman, that's really all you can ask for."

Delaney hopes that more girls will start trying to play baseball just like she did because there isn't much of a drawback doing it.

"I hope that they take the chance of playing," Delaney said. "It's not going to hurt you to do it. It's great. It'll better them as an athlete."

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