Third-year exercise science student Meredith McFadden has always loved the culture and people in the baseball world.
Growing up, McFadden had always played the game, and as she got older, she didn't want her time with the sport to end in high school.
In college, McFadden has been able to carry on her love of the game — except now, it's with the South Carolina baseball team.
McFadden is the first-ever woman to hold the position of bullpen catcher for a Power Five baseball team. Among those teams are schools that play in NCAA Division I athletics for the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference and Southeastern Conference.
McFadden started playing baseball when she was just 4 years old and immediately fell in love with it. She always knew it was what she wanted to do, she said.
It's common for girls to switch over to softball when they get older. But McFadden was never interested in that, she said.
“I wasn't really forced to switch by anybody,” McFadden said. “I was obviously told, ‘You're going to have to switch sometime. Boys are going to get bigger and stronger,’ but I knew that I wanted to keep playing baseball as long as I wanted to, so I was just going to make that happen.”
Her older brother practiced baseball with her growing up, and she stuck with it throughout her youth and high school years. She attended Olympic High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and played on the boys team for all four years.
McFadden didn't experience a lot of pushback while playing with the boys and was instantly welcomed, she said.
“I was definitely very lucky in high school because a lot of the guys that were on my high school team I've been playing with since I was 6 years old,” McFadden said. “So they’ve always seen me as just a teammate, just another person on the field, another member of the team.”
McFadden’s junior year of high school, as well as her baseball season, were cut short in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time in her life that she couldn’t play baseball, and it made her realize she didn’t want to go without it, she said.
McFadden grew up a South Carolina fan, influenced by her uncle, grandparents and extended family who all attended the school. She remembers sitting in her living room at home and watching the Gamecock baseball team when it went to the College World Series in 2010, she said. She knew it was her "dream school."
McFadden said she knew as a junior in high school that she would end up at South Carolina for college, and she decided to figure out a way to be involved with the baseball team.
She found South Carolina’s then-bullpen catcher from 2020 on Instagram and sent him a message to ask how he got the role. This led her to contacting head coach Mark Kingston and explaining her interest in finding a place somewhere within the team.
“At the time, he responded, and he was like, ‘Let's kind of wait until you get here, whenever you get here as a freshman, and we'll kind of reassess what our needs are at the time,’” McFadden said.
The rest of McFadden’s high school years passed, and she reached out again upon her arrival in Columbia as a freshman. The team had two senior bullpen catchers at the time and wasn’t in need of another.
“I was able to be a student my freshman year, and I'm very grateful for that — just to be very connected with the school community and just, kind of, be a student,” McFadden said.
McFadden didn't hear anything from the team until the summer before her sophomore year. She said the team’s director of baseball operations contacted her and asked if she was still interested.
She told him that she was and went to Founders Park to try out and have an interview.
“I went there, and the rest is history,” McFadden said. "(I’ve) been with the team ever since.”
This year is her second working with the team, and Kingston said she adds a number of valuable qualities.
“You want (a bullpen catcher) to be somebody that is trustworthy. You want it to be somebody that is talented enough to handle our type of pitching staff,” Kingston said. “You want it to be somebody that’s mature … somebody that you respect their opinion, and Meredith is all of those things.”
As a bullpen catcher, McFadden helps warm up the relief pitchers who are preparing to go into the game by calling pitches and catching their practice throws in the bullpen.
“Her role for us is important because every pitcher that she's down there — every pitch she catches down there for us is one less that Cole Messina has to catch, which keeps him fresher for the game,” Kingston said. “So that’s a really important role for a team.”
McFadden said she tries to make an impact on the team by "preparing the pitchers to perform at the SEC level." Some of her tasks include helping them with their throwing programs, getting their arms in pitching shape and giving them coaching advice and feedback.
“I usually just show up to the field and kind of wait for people to be like, ‘Hey, Meredith, I need you to do this,’” McFadden said. “I'm always there to help them, whatever they need, baseball-wise, personal-wise, anything.”
McFadden said she tries to bridge the gap between being a player and a coach for the team, and she sees herself as somewhere in the middle.
“I feel like the guys are comfortable enough coming to me about literally anything because they know their playing time isn't going to be dictated by me,” McFadden said. “So they can be very honest with me, and I really do appreciate it … I want them to have that ability to share those things because college sports is very stressful.”
Redshirt sophomore pitcher Roman Kimball was injured and had Tommy John surgery during the 2023 season, and McFadden was a part of his pitching recovery process. He said the team enjoys watching McFadden succeed in her role.
“We got guys who throw bullpens all the time, and she's able to give us good feedback based on what she's seeing, so that's always a good thing to have,” Kimball said. “She's always here supporting us, even for games and everything. And she's out there if we need her to catch some bullpens and stuff, so it's always good to have her around.”
McFadden's catching skills make her a valuable asset to the team, Kingston said.
“We’re happy to have her,” Kingston said. “She does a really nice job and, you know, regardless of her gender, she does a great job, and so we’re happy to have Meredith.”
Even though McFadden is used to playing with boys, she’s been able to enjoy the sport with other girls as well. She said that playing with other girls gives her people to lean on and relate to.
“I started playing baseball with other girls when I was about 11 years old through different girl's baseball organizations and initiatives, and I've been very lucky for that,” McFadden said. "Those programs help me meet people from all across the country who have gone through the exact same things as me and understand my very unique challenges that I face.”
McFadden also plays for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which originates from World War II when women played baseball in place of the men who went to war.
Some of the original members of the league are still trying to revive women's professional baseball, she said. McFadden travels with the league and competes in its annual tournament.The teams are inspired by the original teams from the league.
“I played for the Rockford Peaches, which was one of the original teams, so that's pretty cool being around now the new age of women's baseball and the younger generation,” McFadden said. “Some people that I used to look up to in the women's baseball space that are now teammates of mine during these events. It's really cool.”
McFadden said she wants to continue working closely with baseball after college. She has the option to go into an athletic training position with her exercise science major but is keeping her plans open, with hopes to become a bullpen catcher for a professional team after she completes her undergraduate degree.
What motivates her is seeing other women that she looks up to make it in baseball, she said. She wants to be that person for girls who were like her growing up.
“Seeing the young girls that come out to baseball games, at Founders, and I see them, and I see that little — their love of baseball, and I want them to be able to see me just kind of making opportunities for myself and succeeding and thriving in a very competitive baseball environment,” McFadden said. “I want them to be able to see that representation of themselves.”