Youngster Claire Eccles is pitch perfect for Canada at Pan Am Games

Claire Eccles didn’t need to make a pitch – well, not a verbal one or a power point presentation - to be part of Canada’s national women’s baseball team. The soft-spoken 17-year-old saved her talking for the mound.

What the lefthander gave away in experience, she more than made up for in sheer talent. That’s just what long-time manager André Lachance took note of when the teen from Surrey, B.C., started to turn heads during tryouts for the national team, the one who would make the cut when she was just 16.

“She’s a kid with a ton of potential,” said Lachance, the only field manager the Canadian women’s national team has ever known. “It’s great to have such a quality left-handed pitcher. That ball is always moving and she keeps it low. But, I think she will be a dual position player, a big asset in the outfield, too. She can pitch and hit, but she also has a great glove.”

It’s a skill set that the Pan Am baseball world will see next week.

“We have a lot of experience on this team, but we also have some great young talent, including Claire,” said pitcher-outfielder Autumn Mills, who has been with the national team for a decade. “She’s going to have a great future wearing the red and white uniform.”

Eccles’ baseball path began when she was given a computer game called Backyard Baseball 2002 for her fifth birthday. She learned the rules of the game by playing it and immediately fell in love with the sport.

When she told her mother she had aspirations of one day playing Major League Baseball, Eccles didn’t get the desired response and was reduced to tears. It appears Eccles hadn’t yet seen the baseball flick A League of Their Own, when Jimmy Duggan (played by Tom Hanks) uttered the famous line, “There's no crying! There’s no crying in baseball!”

These days, however, Eccles is all smiles.

“I’m just so honoured to be playing for my country,” she said. “I fell in love with the game when I was young, and I just really gravitated towards pitching. I think it was because I liked to be in control of the game and that’s what pitching offered. I kept on practising it and pushed myself to improve.”

About five years ago, she attended a baseball camp in White Rock, B.C., that was run by former MLB pitcher (he’s also a lefty) and fellow Surrey native, Adam Loewen, currently playing in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

“I remember getting his autograph and I remember the camp was a lot of fun, a really great learning experience,” recalled Eccles of her time spent with Loewen, who was supposed to play for Canada at the Pan Am Games. Instead, he’s pitching for the Phillies’ Lehigh Valley Triple A affiliate and continuing a remarkable comeback from an elbow injury that forced him to quit pitching in 2007.

Eccles, who is half-Japanese, has also closely followed the career of Ichiro Suzuki, the Miami Marlins outfielder and future Hall of Famer.

“I love the way he plays the game,” she said. “I also really enjoyed watching (2015 Hall of Fame inductee) Randy Johnson. He was a great pitcher and a lefty, too.”

Does she see any similarities between her and the five-time Cy Young Award winner?

“I’m not sure,” she said with a laugh. “The one thing I know is that he throws a lot harder than I do.”

Eccles’ stuff, however, can be just as nasty as the player that was dubbed “The Big Unit”.

In her first ever World Cup game in 2014, she tossed four shutout innings against Australia, giving up just three hits and one walk. That same year, at the Senior Women’s Invitational Championships in B.C, she posted two wins, an earned-run average of 0.00 with nine strikeouts in 7 2-3 innings.

Those are scary numbers. Even scarier when you consider Eccles is only going to get better.

“I used to be really nervous, especially before my first World Cup, but it’s not like that anymore. I’ve had a lot great support along the way, my teammates picking me up if I’ve had an off game, patting me on the back. You can’t help but smile being part of this group.”

See? There’s no crying in baseball.