Mo’ne Davis is still on track to be a college basketball star, but she hasn’t given up on baseball just yet.
Now 16 years old, the former Little League World Series hero is playing for a Philadelphia team in the RBI World Series in Cincinnati. She pitched two innings Tuesday, and while the seats at Great American Ballpark were mostly empty, her return to a national baseball stage drew plenty of attention.
One thing has changed for Davis. She’s a seasoned veteran at dealing with the spotlight now.
“At first, it was crazy, but it’s calmed down a lot,” Davis told Philly.com. “I don’t feel any pressure because of what I did back then.”
Davis became an international star during the 2014 Little League World Series. She threw out the first pitch before a World Series game and played in the celebrity game at Madison Square Garden during the NBA’s 2015 All-Star weekend.
Now she plays on her high school softball team, and in the RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) baseball program. She remains an inspiration to young girls, particularly in Philadelphia. Her coach, Steve Bandura, told MLB.com that 20-25 of the approximately 160 kids ages 5-7 who signed up for the inner-city program are girls.
When Davis’ RBI team played in a tournament in South Carolina earlier this summer, she drew plenty of attention.
“There were probably 100 teams there, lots of them much younger than our kids,” Bandura told Philly.com. “When they saw Mo, they went absolutely crazy, crowding around her, asking for pictures and autographs.”
Her team lost its opening game at the RBI World Series. Davis faced a team from Chicago that included several members of the Jackie Robinson West Little League club who became co-stars of the 2014 LLWS.
Davis said she’d like to continue playing baseball at least until college. She’s looking forward to getting her driver’s license.
While she is a star athlete at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, basketball continues to likely be her future path. Bandura said “the D-I scouts are circling.”
The attention is nothing new for Davis, and she continues to thrive in that environment. When she was 13 and a national sensation, Davis made it clear that she wanted to play basketball at Connecticut.
Three years later, it looks Geno Auriemma might have some work to do to lure Davis to the women’s basketball superpower.
“I still watch them play and still watch all the highlights, but I don’t know if I fit that playing style,” she told MLB.com. “I have a different playing style, an old-school playing style. I like to slow things down if the team’s on the run, get the ball moving a little bit.”