When you think of professional baseball pitchers you think of Nolan Ryan or Randy Johnson, but how about a female?

Eri Yoshida is a 5' 5", 18-year-old with 65 mile per hour pitches and her knuckleballs has been clocked around 50 mph. She is the first female to play in the Golden Baseball League.

Eri Yoshida came from Japan to play for the Yuma Scorpions winter league. In February, Yoshida had her first win, throwing four shut-out innings, winning 5-0 over the Canadian Miners. The Yuma Scorpions came in third place for the 2010 winter league with Eri Yoshida leading them all the way to the playoffs.

Kevin Outcalt, the commissioner for the Golden Baseball League, said that the main concern was whether she could play competitively enough. Her agent reassured him that this was not an issue. The only other thing that brought concern was that she would need her own locker room, thus taking over the umpire locker room.

Eri Yoshida was offered a contract to play for the Chico Outlaws. We will be seeing her play this summer, but as an opponent.

Yoshida was honored with a spot on Venus Zine's 25 under 25 list of remarkable women for 2009.