A .400 Hitter Named Emily Youngest Of Four Children Follows Her Brothers Into Little League

The youngest of the four Florence children stepped into the batter’s box in the Boise Boys All Star championship game.

The 9-year-old eyed the pitcher, swung and was racing to first at the crack of the bat.

After watching their three boys play on East Boise Little League All Star teams over the years, Mike and Sharon Florence never expected to be watching Emily do the same thing.

Not only is their daughter the only girl playing little league baseball in the city, but Emily was selected by the other players as a 1995 All Star. Her teammates say it was deserved.

“The boys really respect her,” Sharon Florence says. “She was born and raised on the ball field.”

The dark brown ponytail jutting out the back of her baseball cap is the only thing that distinguishes the barely 4-foot-tall infielder from her teammates. She is shy and unassuming off the field - to the point of all but refusing to talk about the sport she excels at.

But when the game is under way, she is as aggressive as any other player.

“My brothers taught me,” Emily said in a rare comment beyond the typical nod of her head or shrug of her shoulders.

Her mother said Emily has never played with dolls, preferring to be outside playing sports with her brothers. And her parents, both active in competitive sports through high school, have shown no reluctance to encourage her just as they did their sons.

As catcher and second baseman, Emily played a key role in getting the 9- and 10-year-old East All Stars to the championship round of the season-ending tournament without a loss.

She had a .400 batting average during the regular season, and her coach, John Cromie, called her one of the best defensive catchers in the league.

But the title slipped away in disheartening 11-10 and 8-5 losses.

Only 14 are chosen from the 100 players on the eight East Boise teams in that age division, and it is up to those players to decide just who represents the league in the county-wide tournament. To be eligible, players must sign agreements that they will be available for all practices and games during the tournament’s run - including practice on the Fourth of July.

Even for the parents, Sharon Florence admits, “it’s a big commitment.”

Emily also plays basketball at her grade school. And she won all 20 of her wrestling matches against boys in the Boise High School Little League this past year, winning 18 matches by pin. She plays soccer in the 13-year-old girls city league.

Not surprisingly, the fourth-grader plans to stick with baseball even as other girls concentrate on softball.

The T-ball leagues for the younger kids are coed. But by 9 years old girls switch to softball while the boys move on to Little League baseball.

“She didn’t want to switch,” Sharon Florence says. “She’s so competitive.”

And Emily, who has been the bat girl for the Boise High School varsity team since she was 5, comes by her talents honestly.

Brother Ben, 19, recently received a full scholarship to play baseball at the College of Southern Idaho after being named Idaho player of the year in his senior season at Boise High School. Branden, 17, plays varsity baseball for Boise High, where he will be a senior this fall. Nic, 13, plays on the Junior Boy’s All Star team.

Where does Emily stack up? “She’s as good as they were at her age,” Sharon Florence says.

Emily already knows she isn’t alone among women trying to buck baseball’s male tradition. She was the bat girl for the Silver Bullets, the all-women professional baseball team, when it played an exhibition last year in Boise.

Cromie says Emily can play in the boys leagues as long as she wants and remains competitive. On the latter score, he may be talking years.

“Her fundamentals are as good as any of the boys,” Cromie said. “She’ll play as long as she feels comfortable. She’s really good.”