How I Made the Peruvian National Team As A High School Senior… and Pitched Against Team USA!

One of the benefits of our “I Commit” page is we not only find out who’s verballed and to what college program, but we get some great story ideas…

… like this one that came from Maddison Pacione, a senior pitcher at Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh, New York. Maddison plays club ball for the Tri-State Angels club organization and wrote to let us know that she is headed this fall to play for Dominican College, a Div. II school, in Orangeburg, New York.

In the form’s “Tell Us Your Story” box, the East Coast athlete wrote: “I also play for the Women’s Peruvian National Team where I pitched against Team USA in the Pan American games in Dominican Republic.”

Now THAT’S a good way to get our attention, so we reached out to Maddison to learn more about her experiences being a high school student-athlete still and getting to pitch against teams from nations such as Italy, Spain and, yes, even the U.S.A., not to mention lining up across the field to compete against some of her college pitching idols.

Here’s Maddison’s story… we think you’ll find it an interesting read!

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Two years ago, the Peruvian federation started to contact me after seeing my Dad’s Facebook page about my accomplishments in the circle.

They were looking for American-Peruvian players to help grow Peru’s softball movement. My mom was born there and came to the United States when she was nine-years-old.

Some of the girls had tryouts down in Peru and they reached out to me in September of 2016 to see if could come down to Columbia and pitch in the South American 18U championship. This was basically like a tryout for me.

We ended up taking 3^rd place with Brazil taking 1st and Argentina taking 2nd. I pitched well against both of them and that’s was when a new chapter of playing international softball opened up for me and my family.

I have since played with the team and the Women’s team in the Pan American Games and the Bolivian Games which included facing the US National Team. Pitching against them was awesome—I lasted about four innings and got some good quality outs.

Here I was 17-years-old playing against Team USA and going up against the best team in the world!

I got to meet one of my idols, Kelly Barnhill of Florida and had an awesome time representing my mother’s county.

Team Puerto Rico was also stacked with Taron Alvelo (Washington) and Aleshia Ocasio (Florida), two of the best pitchers in the world.

They are three girls I love watching on TV and getting to talk with them was just a dream come true!

I played in Spain two months ago with the Peruvian Select team and had a great time there too on and off the field. I have since made the Peruvian roster for the USA Cup in California in July where Team Peru will be competing to gear up for the Pan American games in Lima, Peru in 2019.

It’s amazing… I have only been pitching since the 8^th grade and almost quit softball my first year of Little League because I got hit in the face with the ball, so I have come a long ways but I know I still have a lot more to learn.

This game has been so good to me and the places that I have played are a dream come true!

My Dad’s motto is, “Hard work pays off,” so I just try to stick by that and have been blessed to play the game that I love!

MORE INFO ON MADDISON:

What do you think makes you an international-caliber pitcher even though you’re still in high school?
I have good velocity and throw a curve, rise and a change-up which I just have learned in the fall.

You had some amazing international experiences for someone so young! What are some other highlights that stand out to you?
Pitching in the Pan American games was a great experience and winning the World Series down in Orlando last July was great too. I was named the Most Outstanding Pitcher of that tournament out of the 28 teams who competed.

You said meeting your pitching idols was impactful too… what is something one of them said that stuck with you?
Kelly (Barnhill) was great to me; she told me to just keep working hard.

All of this on-field success has happened in a really short period of time since you started pitching only a year or two ago. Walk us through the recruiting process and why you decided to play at Dominican College…
It’s true: while girls were getting recruited in the 8th and 9th grades, I was just starting to pitch and had one offer going into my senior year. Then, in a matter of one week, I had five offers. I picked Dominican College because it’s a small campus with a strong program and has good academics. The recruiting process was fun and stressful at the same time, but I’m very excited to be a Charger!