She Was Once The Biggest Youth Baseball Player on the Planet, Now She’s Going Pro

Over a decade after becoming the first girl to pitch a shutout in the Little League World Series, American superstar Mo’ne Davis is returning to the diamond. 

The Philadelphia native became an overnight viral sensation after her awe-inspiring performances in the 2014 Little League World Series. Repping Pennsylvania’s Taney Little League, the 13-year-old shut out Nashville, giving up just two hits and striking out eight batters.  She graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, the first for a current Little League Player, and she was showered with praise and accolades around the nation. 

Now 24, Davis will be among more than 600 players participating in tryouts for the inaugural Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL). These are the first tryouts for a women’s baseball league in over 80 years. Davis will join the other athletes the weekend of August 22–25, 2025, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. From that group, approximately 150 players will be drafted in October to fill six teams for the league’s debut season in summer 2026.

In a recent interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Davis confirmed her participation and her motivation for making a comeback. “I like to try things,” she said. “And this was something that I was like, ‘You know what, why not give it a try? Why not help the league grow?’ I’m just not done playing at all.”

The WPBL represents the first professional women’s baseball league in the United States since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League disbanded in 1954.

“This is more than a tryout – it’s a moment of long-overdue recognition for the incredible talent that has gone unseen for far too long,“ said WPBL Co-Founder, Dr. Justine Siegal in an interview with CBS Mornings.“We are thrilled to work with the Washington Nationals organization for our tryouts and have them support our League and women’s professional baseball.”

Though Davis has faded from the public eye, she continued to play sports at the high school and collegiate level, playing two seasons of softball as an infielder for Hampton University from 2020-2022. (See details at Hampton Stats.) 

She finished her final season at Hampton with a .219 batting average and with 24 total runs, second on the team. 

Davis developed an interest in broadcast, majoring in Journalism at Hampton. She continued her education at Columbia, where she received a Master’s degree in sports management in 2024. 

Softball is a massively popular and lucrative sport for girls and young women across the country, with Oklahoma’s Nijaree Canady signing the first million-dollar NIL deal this past season. Currently, the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) is the premier pro league in the nation, after investment from Major League Baseball. The introduction of the WPBL could signal another, separate avenue for young female athletes who want to make their name on the diamond.

Though baseball and softball are historically segregated by sex, the WPBL signals an opportunity to reconnect with a slice of women’s history in our nation’s pastime. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League debuted in 1943, when many able-bodied men were off fighting World War II. The history of the league was most famously fictionalized in the 1992 film A League of Their Own, starring Tom Hanks.  

“We are really excited to see all of the players at tryouts this summer and see their incredible skills,” said Alex Hugo, EVP of WPBL Player Relations in a statement on the league’s website. “We’re building a future where girls and women who love baseball can dream as big as they want and now, finally, have a league to call their own.”

A decade ago, Mo’ne Davis proved that young female athletes did not have to be constrained to one role in one sport. Later this summer, she’ll prove it again, charting new territory in women’s sports.