During summer break, many people go and search for opportunities to advance their strength in a sport or activity they do. This summer, senior Danielle Moser got the opportunity to participate in the USA Elite Development Invitational, which was sponsored by MLB baseball. This week-long program was in Vero Beach, Florida at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex where Moser went on to learn many things. 

Danielle came to learn about this program by joining a development program for women's baseball through MLB.com. There, Major League Baseball “set up four training sights across the country” that were made for the girls to do professional workouts. This was called MLB GRIT and she says that if they went on to do well, “you would get an invite for the development program in Florida.” In September of 2021, Danielle went to one of these training sessions in Boston but was not accepted because of her age. Even though she was not able to do it, she met two high schoolers who were accepted into the program. The people she has met were “Alexia Jorge who was a catcher, and made the Team USA roster that season” as well as “Olivia Pichardo who is the first woman to ever play D1 baseball.” Although she did not get accepted the first time, she went to another MLB GRIT training in Philadelphia where, based on her workout and how well she did, she got invited to the developmental program in Florida. As a plus, “Major League Baseball paid for the trip and all of the equipment."

While Danielle was there, she did many activities that helped her become a stronger baseball player. As a pitcher, she “worked in the bullpen with former major league pitcher, Bruce Chen, and Team USA pitcher, Meggie Meidlinger.” She went on to work with many people such as former USA players Kelsie Whitmore, Alex Oglesby, Tamara Holmes, Jade Gortarez, and the head coach of Team USA, Veronica Alvarez. At the program, they “did strength training, hitting drills, nutrition classes, and went on to play games everyday.” Danielle felt that these activities were very helpful and that they helped her learn a lot.

Two weeks after this program had finished, she traveled “ to Kentucky for a week-long tournament to play in the Baseball For All Nationals” which was for the New York Wonders national team. She came to be their team's number one pitcher and she batted over .500. Her team went on to be undefeated and won the whole tournament .

Danielle has been playing baseball since she was ten and got into it because she wanted to “improve her catching skills for softball.” With her practicing more and more, she fell in love with baseball and started to strictly play baseball. One of her first coaches, Bryan Shaffer, said “she has a good arm and would be a great pitcher” which led her to switch over to baseball as well. 

Danielle is the first female baseball player at Steinert as well as the first female player for high school level in Mercer County and in the legion in our area. For Steinert, she has participated in baseball since freshman year. This year, she hopes that she gets to “make Varsity and a good amount of innings played.” For college, she is open to going anywhere. She “currently has one offer from Luzerne” but she is also talking to other schools as well such as Clarks Summit, Middlesex College, Penn State Brandywine and Bucks County Community College.