Baseball: Girl pitcher set to debut in West Valley League

Get ready for lots of conversation and debate this spring, because Lake Balboa Birmingham is going to be using a girl on the mound.

Marti Sementelli, a junior who pitched for Burbank's junior varsity baseball team last season and was the focus of a New York Times story, transferred to Birmingham and has been doing well this winter pitching for the varsity, Birmingham Coach Matt Mowry said.

"She's one of our top three or four pitchers," he said.

In a three-inning stint this winter against Encino Crespi, one of the top teams in the San Fernando Valley, Sementelli allowed one run.

In 2008, Sementelli won a bronze medal as a member of the women's national team at the Women's World Cup and made the all-tournament team.

-- Eric Sondheimer