Cal State San Marcos softball player Jillian Albayati makes history playing baseball game same day

SAN MARCOS, Calif. (AP) — When the Cal State San Marcos baseball team needed a pitcher this past weekend, everybody knew Jillian Albayati could handle the job.

She’s a reliable right-handed pitcher in baseball and plays third base for softball.

Albayati became just the second player in collegiate history and first in Division II to appear in formal baseball and softball games the same day when she pitched the final inning in the opener of a doubleheader against Sonoma State.

Fortunately with the school’s baseball and softball fields only about a football field apart (100 yards), Albayati was able to play softball for the Cougars in the morning before she switched gears — and gear — for some baseball next door. Cal State San Marcos posted side-by-side photos of her on social media from both games.

“It was so awesome,” she told NBC San Diego. “It just felt like where I needed to be at that moment, it felt pretty amazing.”

Albayati’s softball coach Stef Ewing loved the idea of Albayati helping out when the Division II school’s baseball team was down four pitchers and three starters, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

This isn’t anything new for the sophomore infielder who played baseball for Anaheim High School and has played in the USA Baseball system.

Look at her impressive accomplishments last year: Albayati started a game for the Americans, had a hit against Korea and earned a win on the mound against Canada with five strong innings and three strikeouts. Against Hong Kong, she doubled, scored and drove in three runs.

She received plenty of shoutouts and congratulations for the remarkable feat: “History!! Congratulations to former MLB Develops Girls Baseball player (at)JillianAlbayati” wrote MLB’s social media profile for development of baseball and softball.

No woman had ever appeared in a baseball game for Cal State San Marcos. And after the 5-foot-6 Albayati made history, she returned to the softball diamond to play the second game of that doubleheader.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports