While some of her 8-year-old classmates are content playing with dolls and Barbies, little Taylin Flynn of Hastings has her sights set on something different – getting dirty.
She is the lone 8-year-old girl competing in the Raider Nation baseball program. She started in the program with a lot of other girls, but as she got older, most opted to switch gears and play softball. Taylin, though, likes things just as they are.
“I like hitting the ball and sliding and I also like pitching,” she said. “The reason I like sliding is because it’s just fun to get dirty.”
Her parents, Derek and Cammie, are behind Taylin all the way.
“When she first started, there were other girls,” Cammie said. “She just hasn’t stopped. She does great, and the boys dig her. They’re awesome to her. For her, it’s not really about boys or girls. It’s about playing the sport. She’s a good ballplayer on top of it.”
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Taylin has even earned a nickname. A few years ago, coach Scott Tjomsland named her T-Fly, which combined the first letter of her first name and the first three letters of her last name.
Taylin likes hearing the boys on the team say funny things and call her by her nickname, she said.
“They’re really funny and they’re really fun to play with,” she said. “They just say funny stuff. Like, they call me T-Fly.”
When she’s not busy playing baseball, she loves playing hockey, too.
Cammie Flynn is the fund development director for Raider Nation, so she’s not new to the organization. Nor is she new to the sport.
“I love it,” she said. “I was that girl as well. I played a lot of ball in my day. I wasn’t the girl that played with Barbies. I like hockey, but I’d definitely rather sit out in a lawn chair on a hot summer night than in a hockey arena.”
On a recent Wednesday night, as temperatures plummeted and rain fell, Taylin was on the pitcher’s mound for her team, the Land O’Lakes Tigersharks. She hadn’t exactly shut down the opposition and was nearing the pitch limit of 30 pitches. Her coach and Raider Nation director of baseball Ryan Seleski asked her if she wanted to come out of the game.
“T-Fly – you’ve got 28 pitches under your belt. Want me to put someone else in,” Seleski asked her.
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“Nope,” she said. “I got this.”
She struck out the next batter and headed off the field.
“She loves the sport,” Cammie Flynn said. “As soon as she steps outside, she grabs a hockey stick or a baseball glove. You’ve got to play catch, or there’s pop flies, or grounders. She just loves it. She’s also a tomboy, too. No girl stuff whatsoever. She’d rather put a ballcap on and head out.”
