TAMPA, Fla. — A former University of South Florida softball player is breaking barriers in Minor League Baseball.
Ronnie Gajownik was named manager of the Hillsboro Hops, the High Class-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. She got the call in October from Diamondbacks’ farm director Josh Barfield.
“Just getting the call from him, he actually had to take another call, and the five seconds he was on another call, it felt like five minutes,” Gajownik said. “Once he let me know, I blacked out a little bit. I had to tell my wife after the phone call. I’m pretty sure he said the manager of the Hops.”
Last season, she was on the Hops coaching staff as a video coordinator and was the first base coach for their Double-A affiliate.
She played under USF head coach Ken Eriksen from 2014-15.
“Right away, we knew we had a general on the field, but we didn’t realize how good of a general in the locker room,” Eriksen said.
Before joining the Diamondbacks, she was an assistant at Liberty University and the University of Massachusetts. She was also a member of Team USA women’s baseball, winning a gold medal in the 2015 Pan-American Games.
“But to get involved in a men’s game and get the respect by that organization says a lot,” Eriksen said. “She’s done it by herself. She didn’t do it because she’s a woman. She did it because she is a knowledgeable ball player.”
Now that Gajownik is in a managerial role, it’s not lost the impact she’s making on young girls and women that want to get in involved in baseball.
“I had a gentleman on the grounds crew who asked me if I could be interviewed by his daughter, who is in fifth grade, on her paper on women in baseball,” she said. “One of her questions to me is, 'What inspires you to do this? People like you.' We can be such a symbolic thing for females in regards of breaking the glass ceiling and showing them there might not be a job they don’t see. If they do what they need to do to get themselves there, they can be the first as well."
Gajownik joins Rachel Balkovec, who was named manager of the Tampa Tarpons, a Low-A affiliate for the New York Yankees.
“She is the epitome of taking the bull by the horns, so to speak, and really running with it,” Eriksen added. “We’re very proud of her.”
