13-Year-Old Mo'Ne Davis Leads Her Team At The Little League World Series

Three things separate Mo'Ne Davis from most baseball players at this year's Little League World Series: her 70-mph fastball, her biting curveball, and her gender. For opposing batters, though, those first two are more than enough to worry about.

On Sunday, Davis threw a three-hit shutout against the Delaware-Newark National Little League team, sending her team — the Taney Youth Baseball Association Dragons — to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She struck out six batters in the game, which Taney won easily, 8-0.

The 13-year-old Davis lives in Philadelphia and has played travel-league baseball against boys since she was 7. While she had previously expressed aspirations to play in the WNBA, she recently told The Today Show, "I’ll probably either be the first female in the MLB or in the NBA."

Female participants in the Little League World Series are rare, but not unheard of. Davis will be the 13th girl to play in the LLWS in 68 years, and one of two in this year's tournament (Canada's Emma March is the other).

The tournament starts on Thursday and runs through August 24. You can watch Davis and her Taney teammates play their first game Friday at 3 P.M. ET, against South Nashville on ESPN.

Photo Credit: Charles Krupa/AP