All-girl baseball hits it out of the park with growing numbers in Saskatoon

Saskatoon girls are flocking to the ball diamond in a growing number of all-girl teams in the city.

Christine Hanson and her husband started the first all-girl team for young players when they noticed their daughter, seven-year-old Elizabeth, was always the only girl on her mixed baseball team.

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They started with one team of 12 players. Four years later, there are 18 all-girl teams with close to 200 girls playing.

Hanson believes the format encourages more girls to pick up the sport.

"I think a lot of girls, they're more comfortable playing with other girls," she said.

"I think at certain ages, it's that interaction with boys that sometimes they just don't appreciate or don't like."

Royals is city-wide baseball zone

The girls now make up their own baseball zone the Saskatoon Royals.

The Royals, whose season started this month, often compete against boys teams.

Hanson said interest in the teams had grown through word-of-mouth, with the Royals havingdone very little advertising over the years.

Blue Jays boosting profile

She believes the hype about the Toronto Blue Jays is helping to boost the profile of the sport, with some girls switching from softball to baseball.

"As the zone grows we've started to be able to play against other Royals teams so they're playing against other girls teams," said Hanson.

"But the majority of the games that they play are against the boys teams.

"So that's always fun for them as well, to go out and[say] 'we're going to try to beat the boys]. [And] they do!"