Softball's Jamie Mackay Also Chasing Baseball Dreams

Jamie Mackay recently started collecting baseball cards. Maybe someday, South Carolina softball’s senior catcher/outfielder will have one of herself. Mackay has played with the United States Women’s National Baseball Team as a pitcher and catcher and has aspirations of working for a Major League Baseball organization.

“I always loved baseball,” said Mackay, who transferred to South Carolina after three years at Ole Miss. “My dad (Dana) played in college. I remember the very first time I picked up a bat. From then on, I was hooked. I started playing when I was 4 years old. I grew up in an environment where nobody pressured me to switch to softball. My dad never missed a game.

“I didn’t even know we had a women’s national team until they asked me to try out! Women’s baseball is never at the forefront.”

Mackay tried out for Team USA in 2019 and competed as a pitcher in the Pan Am Games in Mexico, where she was named the relief pitcher of the tournament. She had been asked back to several Team USA camps and events after that, but some of her other coaches didn’t want her to miss time with her team. This past fall she was able to go back with the blessing of Gamecock head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard.

“I didn’t know how she was going to feel about it because it was in the middle of our fall practice in October, and I’d be gone for a week,” Mackay said. “Without missing a beat, she told me to go. That really showed me how much she cares about my interests outside of softball. I’m really happy that she allowed me to do it because the Women’s Professional Baseball League is going to start this year, and I want to be in that. The people running the draft were going to be watching, so I think that helped my draft stock a little bit. I don’t know what the competition level will look like, but I’m really excited about it.

“I love my country. I was very honored to be able to wear that uniform and understand the gravity behind it. Anytime I get to suit up with those three letters across my chest, I’m incredibly grateful. The meaning of it is not lost on me.”

Mackay was drafted in the second round of the Women’s Professional Baseball League in November by Los Angeles.

She started catching when she was ten, and she admits, initially it was because she liked the gear. She had been a pitcher prior to that.

“It was easy for me to be a good pitcher early on because girls mature faster than boys, so I was throwing harder than the guys and throwing accurately,” Mackay said. “Around eighth grade, I got out there, and the guys were throwing in the eighties, and I realized I was going to have to make catching my primary position.”

Mackay played baseball her whole life, including travel ball in high school as well as for her high school team back in California where she was a pitcher and catcher.

“My high school greeted me with open arms,” Mackay said. “It was the first year of them having baseball, and it was fine. It was a little bit of a different story with my club team. There were some that did not care and were really cool and welcoming. With some others, I could hear the whispers behind my back. That was definitely tough. I wasn’t in it to make friends. That’s when I knew how much baseball meant to me.”

She never feared that playing baseball would keep her from being recruited to play softball in college.

“In fact, I think it helped,” Mackay said. “My intention was actually to never be in softball. I wanted to be the first female in Division One baseball. That didn’t happen. Olivia Pichardo did it at Brown. I’m happy for her. That was my goal, and I was only getting baseball interests from some Division II and Division III schools, which is still very high level, and I’m grateful for those opportunities. I wanted Division I, so I started reaching out to some softball schools.”

Despite the difference in proximity to the plate, speed, and size of the ball, Mackay adjusted well to softball.

“The speed is pretty comparable,” Mackay said. “In softball the ball is coming at you from 43 feet at around 65 to 75 miles an hour. That’s comparable to 90-something in baseball from 60 feet. The speed is comparable but the way the ball comes at you is not. A baseball comes at you from about seven feet in the air. A softball comes at you from about two feet off the ground. That took a while. I don’t think I squared a ball up until spring of my freshman year. Hitting was difficult, but the catching was little easier because it’s a bigger ball that doesn’t move quite as much.”

For now, Mackay is excited to be on the softball diamond with the Gamecocks, but she always has one eye on her future on the other diamond.

“It’s important for me to stay around baseball because that’s what I want to end up doing when I’m older,” Mackay said. “I want to work in baseball.

“I love baseball so much. I’m not ready to give it up. I would love to work in a front office or in player development. I think I would enjoy either one of those sides of baseball. I know in my heart that I need to work somewhere in baseball.”