At the end of the game, Annabelle Syvertson and Kourtney Kaplan touched gloves along with the rest of the players for Concord Christian Academy and Franklin High School.

The two young women are a rarity on the diamond, choosing baseball over softball.  

Despite the differences in the success of each team this season – Concord Christian sits at 6-1, while Franklin’s record is 1-6 – Syvertson and Kaplan share many parallels. Both sophomores play in the infield – Kaplan plays at short for Franklin and Syvertson at second base for CCA.

They both contributed to the close contest, a 4-2 win for the host Kingsmen on Monday afternoon.

For a short time,  Syvertson’s eligibility on her team was up in the air due to some discussion within the school’s community. The CCA board considered changing its policy regarding girls participating on boys’ teams. A fellow student at CCA started a petition to support Syvertson, which received more than 800 signatures and 200 comments. 

After reviewing NHIAA guidelines, which state that if no equivalent female sport exists — in this case, softball — girls must be allowed to try out for the boys’ team. In the end, the board made no policy changes, according to Head of School Rob Starner, keeping Syvertson’s spot on the team stable and allowing her to continue playing baseball as she prepares for another softball season with her travel team, NH Lightning.

“It feels really good, especially like being with the team and just having a secure spot,” Syvertson said after the game. “Definitely the pitching is a lot different, but I love being on the team, and just playing baseball really helps me with softball, too. And I want to play softball in college.”

Syvertson and Kaplan both have baseball-loving fathers. On one side of the diamond stood Mike Syvertson, who was the head coach of the Kingsmen for four years and is now serving as an assistant coach.

“It’s such a blessing to get to coach your kids, and to see Annabelle run out with a smile every day, it just lights up the field,” Mike Syvertson said. “It’s not easy for a girl to step on the field and compete with the boys, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a different level, and you’ve got to be mentally tough. She does a fantastic job, and I couldn’t be any more proud of her.”

In the other dugout stood Kyle Kaplan, head coach for the Golden Tornadoes and father of both Kourtney and senior center fielder Harrison Kaplan. Although his team did not win, the elder Kaplan thought the team had a lot to build on from the game. Improving pitching and shoring up some errors will be his focus moving forward.

“She’s always been a team-first person. I know that you’ve heard that echoed from like basketball, but it very much translates to baseball. She’s always played baseball,” Kaplan said about his daughter. “I think that for the most part, everybody knows she belongs here.”

New Hampshire athletic teams have consistently allowed girls to participate in male sports. Bedford’s Maggie Foxx, who played for the Bulldogs’ baseball team all four years of high school, graduated in 2023 and now plays for Brown University’s softball team.

Older cases exist as well, such as that of Marika Lyszczyk, who became the first woman to catch in a men’s college baseball game while playing for Rivier University in Nashua in 2020, and Tara Mounsey from Concord High School, who played on the boys’ hockey team and went on to represent the United States in women’s hockey in the Olympics.

Monday’s game remained close until the end, as both teams scored a few runs early. CCA senior pitcher T.J. Charbono threw a complete game with 17 strikeouts and only allowed two runs to earn the victory.

The Kingsmen had a long postgame talk in the outfield as they turned their focus toward securing a home playoff game. Both teams will run a gauntlet of tough teams ahead and will look to improve to earn playoff spots.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com