Two women are about to get a chance to do something that's extremely rare in baseball.
Kelsie Whitmore and Stacy Piagno will make their professional debuts Friday after being signed by the Sonoma Stompers, a team in the independent Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs.
MORE: Highest-paid female athletes of 2016
Whitmore is a 17-year-old pitcher and outfielder from Temecula, Calif., while Piagno is a 25-year-old pitcher and infielder from St. Augustine, Fla. Both women are members of the U.S. women’s national baseball team.
MORE: Greatest sports movies of all time
SB Nation noted the women will become the first to play on a professional co-ed team since Eri Yoshida did it earlier this decade. Yoshida pitched from 2010-12 in two independent leagues. Before Yoshida, Ila Borders pitched four seasons (1997-2000) in independent ball.
MORE: SN50 ranks the top players in baseball
Film director Francis Ford Coppola is helping sponsor the Stompers. He said co-ed baseball games with his family inspired him to get involved.
“When watching Major League Baseball, I always wondered why there couldn’t be a co-ed team." Coppola said. "It’s the one major sport in which weight and strength come less into play. So when my Sonoma winery became involved with the Stompers, I had the opportunity to turn this thought into a reality and recruit these amazing women capable of playing alongside men.”