Olivia Pichardo becomes first woman to pitch in NCAA Division I baseball game

Olivia Pichardo of Brown University became the first woman to pitch in an NCAA Division I baseball game on April 25, recording the final out of the Bears’ 16-4 win over Cornell in Providence, Rhode Island.

Pichardo entered in the top of the ninth inning with two outs in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Murray Stadium/Attanasio Family Field. She faced one batter, Cornell’s Tyler Beaulieu, and retired him on a groundout to shortstop. Brown’s official play-by-play said the out came on an 0-1 pitch, and her final line was 0.1 innings pitched, one batter faced and two pitches.

The appearance came in a lopsided Senior Day opener, with Brown already well ahead on the way to a 16-4 victory. In its game recap, Brown also said the Bears clinched a berth in the Ivy League Tournament that afternoon, adding team significance to a game that also produced an individual milestone.

According to Brown’s records and MLB.com, it was Pichardo’s first appearance of the 2026 season. Brown’s roster and player profile indicate it was the sixth game appearance of her college career: one in 2023, one in 2024, three in 2025 and this one in 2026.

Pichardo had already broken new ground in Division I baseball before Saturday’s outing. Brown announced in November 2022 that she had become the first woman named to an NCAA Division I varsity baseball roster. Then, on March 17, 2023, she became the first woman to appear in an NCAA Division I baseball game when she entered as a pinch-hitter, according to NCAA.com and Brown’s profile.

This latest step was narrower but still distinct: not the first woman to play college baseball generally, but the first documented pitching appearance by a woman in NCAA Division I baseball. It also came in a regular-season Ivy League game, not an exhibition.

In Brown’s 2022 announcement about making the roster, Pichardo said, “It’s kind of crazy to know that I’m living out my dream right now and my ideal college experience that I’ve always wanted.”