Alexia Jorge Has Been First. A Lot.

Alexia Jorge Has Been First. A Lot.

Some athletes collect trophies. Alexia Jorge collects firsts. At 23, the catcher from Lyndhurst, New Jersey, has been the first woman in two different men's baseball programs, a gold medalist with Team USA, and a starter in the first season of a new professional league for women.

Her story is really the story of how women's baseball in America went from having almost no pathway to having a professional one, told through one player who kept showing up before the path existed.

Baseball, not softball, from the start

Jorge began playing baseball, not softball, at age 3 and stuck with it through high school and college, competing against men the whole way. That choice meant years of being the only girl on the field.

As a teenager she sought out every opportunity open to young women in the sport. She trained for several years at Historic Dodgertown in the USA-MLB Breakthrough Series, played in the MLB Grit Series at Globe Life Park, and worked with past and present Team USA players and former MLB players Homer Bush and Marvin Freeman.

Team USA's youngest gold medalist

Jorge joined Team USA at just 15, the program's youngest player at the time. In 2019 she was the youngest member of the U.S. Women's National Team that won gold at the COPABE Women's Pan-American Championships.

The Americans went a perfect 7-0 in that tournament and outscored opponents 124-20.

Breaking ground at Saint Elizabeth University

Jorge chose Saint Elizabeth University, a small Division III school in Morristown, New Jersey. She joined the program in 2021 as its first female student-athlete, then became the first woman to start for the team.

Her college career produced two national milestones at the most demanding position on the field. On April 12, 2022, she became just the second woman to play catcher in a college baseball game, entering on defense in the sixth inning against Lehman.

Two years later she went further. At The Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach in 2024, she started behind the plate, becoming only the second woman in college baseball history to start at catcher, after Rivier University's Marika Lyszczyk in 2020. That start also made her the first woman to start at catcher in the United East Conference.

The Coastal Plain League's first woman

In 2025 Jorge became the first woman to play in the Coastal Plain League, one of the most competitive summer circuits for college players. Playing for the Holly Springs Salamanders, she was named player of the game in an 11-1 win over the Carolina Pirates, the first CPL start by a woman.

She was candid about being first. Jorge said the opening day was a little shaky, with teammates unsure how to react, but that game helped her bond with the team and prove she belonged. She had moved to Holly Springs only three days before her debut.

The year before, after playing for the Bergen Mallers of the Metropolitan Collegiate Baseball League, she was invited to USA Baseball's 38-player training camp for the Women's Baseball World Cup Finals. She did not make the final 20-player roster.

Back in red, white, and blue

Jorge earned her way back onto the national team for the 2026 Women's Baseball World Cup Group Stage. In a 34-0 U.S. win over Hong Kong on July 27, she had three hits, three runs, and three RBIs while four American pitchers combined on a no-hitter.

Turning pro in a historic first season

The Women's Pro Baseball League is the first American women's professional baseball league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954. San Francisco drafted Jorge 20th overall, in the second round of the inaugural WPBL Draft, and she quickly contributed behind the plate and at it.

She had her share of big games. In a late-August loss to the Los Angeles Queens, she led the Firebells' offense with three hits, including a home run, and scored twice. San Francisco was the league's best offense, leading in runs (142), home runs (19), and OPS (1.041).

Jorge was behind the plate for another first: the first playoff game in WPBL history, a 6-4 Firebells win over Boston in Springfield, Illinois, on Sept. 9, 2026. Boston catcher Beth Greenwood credited both backstops for reading swings and mixing up pitch-calling against familiar hitters.

In the championship series she contributed the old-school way. Facing elimination in Game 3, she reached base three times, twice on hit-by-pitches, and scored once in a 10-run win; MLB.com compared her run of HBPs to Craig Biggio's. The Firebells rallied from down 0-2 to force Game 5, but the Queens won it 2-0 behind Ayami Sato's shutout, the first complete game in league history, and took the first WPBL title.

Paying it forward

Off the field, Jorge runs a catching academy for girls and hosts Beyond Limits, a podcast about athletics, resilience, leadership, and the mindset to push past perceived limits.

The timing of her career is what stands out most. When she arrived at Saint Elizabeth, the U.S. had no professional pathway for women in baseball. Five years later, she is helping build one. The next generation of girls who pick up a catcher's mitt won't have to wonder whether a league is waiting for them, and Alexia Jorge is one of the reasons why.

Firsts at a glance

2019 Youngest player on Team USA's Pan-American Championships gold medal team
2021 First female baseball player at Saint Elizabeth University; later its first female starter
2022 Second woman ever to play catcher in a college baseball game
2024 Second woman to start at catcher in college baseball; first in the United East Conference
2025 First woman to play and start in the Coastal Plain League
2025 Second-round pick and starting catcher in the WPBL's inaugural season, including its first playoff game

Sources

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