Katie Horstman

As a hitter, she ranks in the AAGPBL all-time list with a career .286 average (6th) and 23 home runs (11th), despite playing just four of the league's twelve seasons.

A native of Minster, Ohio, Horstman was the youngest girl in a home of six children.

Whenever they played baseball she did it.

She started to play on the Catholic Youth Organization softball team in Minster since the fifth grade.

Catherine Horstman [″Horsey″] (born April 14, 1935) is a former female utility player who played from 1951 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Listed at 5ft 7in, 150 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.

A dependable and versatile utility, Horstman excelled as a pitcher and catcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, being also able to play at third base and all outfield positions.

As a pitcher, she was the dream of every manager, being a long reliever one day, volunteering to make an emergency start the next, and saving a game out the day after that.

Horstman also was a good defensive catcher, with a good throwing arm and the ability to get most out of a pitching staff.

But she was a superb defender at third base, demonstrating good range and throwing from any angle with remarkable accuracy.

At 16, she was invited to tryouts for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and signed a contract for $250 a month to play with the Kenosha Comets before the 1951 season.

Horstman started 1951 with Kenosha but was traded to the Fort Wayne Daisies during the midseason, playing for them until the demise of the league in 1954.

In her rookie season, she pitched, caught and played at outfield, hitting a combined .256 batting average in 38 games, and going 3–0 with nine strikeouts and a 2.35 earned run average in six pitching appearances.

Fort Wayne reached the playoffs, but lost to the South Bend Blue Sox in the first round, two games to one.

Horstman saw more action in 1952, appearing at third base and pitching.

She hit .250 in 90 games, and posted a 5–2 record with 28 strikeouts and a 2.35 ERA in ten decisions.

The Daisies advanced to the playoffs for the second year in a row, this time finishing in first place with a 67–42 record, but again lost the first round, 2-to-1, to the Rockford Peaches.

In 1953, Horstman hit .292 with 46 runs batted in and 23 extrabases in 94 games, including 46 runs and a career-high 14 stolen bases.

She also went 11–5 with 57 strikeouts and a 2.32 ERA in 17 games, being selected for the All-Star Team at third base.

The Daisies won the title with a 66–39 mark.

The explosive bats of Wilma Briggs and the sisters Betty Weaver Foss and Joanne Weaver provided the difference in the league.

Briggs belted a league-lead nine homers, while Joanne led in average (.346) and Betty in RBI (81) and stolen bases (80), but Fort Wayne lost for the third consecutive year in the first round, now with the Kalamazoo Lassies, 2-to-1.

In the All-Star Game, played on July 14 at Memorial Park, the Daisies defeated the All-Star team in an 11-inning effort behind Jean Geissinger, who belted a walk-off home run, and Horstman, whose relief pitching silenced an All-Stars potential rally in the 9th inning.

During what turned out to be the league's final season, the girls hit a regulation-sized baseball.

The strong Daisies lineup won the title with a 54–40 record.

Once more, Joanne Weaver led all hitters with a remarkable .429 average and a best-ever 29 home runs, while her older sister Betty hit .352 with 14 homers and 54 RBI.

Other contributions came from Geissinger, who hit a second-best .377 average with 26 homers and a league-high 91 RBI.

Meanwhile, Horstman posted career numbers in average (.328), home runs (16), hits (98), doubles (13), RBI (55), runs (68), total bases (163) and slugging (.545).

She played at third, caught and pitched, adding to her resume a 10–4 mark with 46 strikeouts and a 2.85 ERA.

In the playoffs, Fort Wayne dispatched the Grand Rapids Chicks (2-to-1) and Kalamazoo did the same with the Blue Sox.

In Game 1 of the AAGPBL Series, the Kalamazoo Lassies defeated the Fort Wayne Daisies 17–9 behind a four-hit, seven strong innings from June Peppas, who also helped herself by hitting 2-for-4, including one home run.

Her teammates Carol Habben and Fern Shollenberger also slugged one each, and Chris Ballingall belted a grand slam.

Pitching star Maxine Kline, who had posted an 18–7 record with 3.23 ERA for the Daisies during the regular season, gave up 11 runs in six innings and was credited with the loss.

Hortsman connected two home runs for the Daisies in a lost cause, and her teammate Joanne Weaver slugged one.

The Daisies bounced back in Game 2, hitting five home runs against the Lassies to win, 11–4.

Horstman started the feat with a two-run home run to open the score in the first inning.

In the rest of the game, Betty Weaver Foss added two homers with five RBI, while her sister Joanne and Geissinger added solo shots.

Peppas, Nancy Mudge and Dorothy Schroeder homered for Kalamazoo.

In Game 3, the Daisies won the Lassies, 8–7, fueled again by a heavy hitting by Joanne Weaver, who hit a double, a triple and a three-run home run in five at bats, driving in four runs.

In Game 4, starter Gloria Cordes helped Kalamazoo to tie the series, pitching a complete game victory over the Daisies, 6–5.