Gamecocks' Meredith McFadden breaking barriers as first female bullpen catcher

Baseball has always been in Meredith McFadden’s blood. Despite being a female in a male-dominant sport, she hasn’t let that stop her from competing. She played from little league through high school as the only girl on her team.

Then COVID-19 happened.

McFadden’s junior season came to an abrupt end like many other high school athletes. She felt lost without baseball.

“I was having a whole identity crisis to be like who am I outside of baseball,” McFadden said on The Garnet Trust Hour on 107.5 The Game. “Once it was taken away from me, I couldn’t live without it. So I was like, ‘I got to do this at the next level anyway I possibly can.'”

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McFadden, desperate to not let her time in baseball end, decided to chase a lifelong goal. She reached out to South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston with the hopes of becoming a bullpen catcher for the team she grew up rooting for.

It seemed like a shot in the dark but it was worth a shot. Then, an answer came from the man himself.

“I reached out to coach Kingston, heard back, and it was very nice that he took the time to read what I had to say,” McFadden said. “At the time, he was like, ‘We’ll see when you actually come here because it was my junior year of high school. So I still had some time before I even came to USC.”

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By that point, McFadden hadn’t even begun applying to colleges. It was never a guarantee that she would get into South Carolina. But deep down, she knew she would be going there no matter what.

“My mom literally forced me to apply to other schools, like in-state schools, but I knew I was going to USC. She was like, you’ve got to have a back up plan or something. And I’m like, okay, but I’m going to USC,” she said.

Eventually, she received a long-awaited acceptance letter from South Carolina. But that was only step one. She still needed to find a way onto the baseball team.

During her first year on campus, she reached back out to Kingston, but the team didn’t have a need for a bullpen catcher with two guys already filling the void. However, they planned to keep her in mind if something opened up the following year.

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After nearly three years of waiting, the team reached back out to her with good news. McFadden’s dream became a reality.

Now in her first season with the team, McFadden, a sophomore at USC, made some history. She’s the first female bullpen catcher at the Power Five level. Slowly but surely, women are making their way into the game.

“There’s some females that play all around the country for D-II, D-III, JUCO all around the country that I’ve had great friendships with,” McFadden said. “They’re great ballplayers. They earn their positions. And it’s really cool to see women in baseball, coming up all around the country, and it’s just progressing so much over the years.”

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Just like anybody breaking barriers, there’s always the concern of how they’ll be received by others. In McFadden’s case, she didn’t know how it would go once stepped into the locker room for the first time.

“I think I was worried how open they were going to be to accepting a girl into their guys-guys program,” she said. “Coming to USC, I had to prove myself. I think everybody at first was a little apprehensive. Just didn’t know what to expect having a girl coming to their program.”

It didn’t take long for her worries to disappear.

“I was welcomed with open arms from the team and was very grateful. I didn’t really know what to expect coming to a pretty traditional baseball school with a pretty high reputation in baseball still,” McFadden said.

Fast forward to now, South Carolina is arguably one of the best teams in the country. The Gamecocks have a real chance at contending for a College World Series title.

While there’s still plenty of baseball still to play, it would be a dream come true for the girl who grew up watching the Gamecocks win it all.

“I can’t even put into words how cool that would be just for me and thinking back how proud my family would be,” McFadden said. “I was talking to my mom the other day. It’s cool that I’m a part of this. When we’re talking about Gamecock baseball, they’re like, oh, y’all instead of, oh, the team, like I’m a part of that. And that’s talking to my friends or my family. That’s so cool to be a part of that.”

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