{"id":626852,"date":"2023-04-08T01:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T06:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/08\/gajownik-earns-first-win-as-hillsboro-manager\/"},"modified":"2023-04-08T01:14:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T06:14:00","slug":"gajownik-earns-first-win-as-hillsboro-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/08\/gajownik-earns-first-win-as-hillsboro-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Gajownik earns first win as Hillsboro manager"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\n

6:14 AM UTC<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

\n
\n
Hillsboro Hops manager Ronnie Gajownik smiles after winning her first game as skipper.<\/span>Hillsboro Hops<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

The first thing Ronnie Gajownik did was grab her speakers from her office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

She put on Danzel\u2019s “Pump It Up” and put it on full blast as she entered the Hillsboro Hops clubhouse. The other thing she had in her hand was a hat — the bad boy hat, awarded to the \u201cbad boy of the game.\u201d She started dancing and they started cheering, because even though Gajownik hadn\u2019t let it fully sink in, her players knew what they had just accomplished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Together, the Hops earned Gajownik\u2019s first win as a Minor League manager — the first for a woman at the High-A level.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThey got really into it,\u201d Gajownik said. \u201cThe guys, they do understand how big of a moment this is. I had a couple of guys come up to me after the game and congratulate me. It\u2019s just great to see that acceptance and knowing that I\u2019m here for a reason, and I\u2019m here for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Indeed, it was hard for Gajownik to fully comprehend what this moment meant for baseball as a whole. From Rachel Balkovec to Alyssa Nakken to Victoria Alvarez and many more, Gajownik is another in the line of women who are breaking barriers in the world of coaching<\/a>. It hasn\u2019t been easy, but it\u2019s sure been rewarding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“I haven’t really had a chance to think about how huge a moment this is in regards to me, since I’ve been so focused on them, but I know soon I’ll probably be taking a huge sigh of relief,” Gajownik said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It was like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again when Hillsboro\u2019s second game of the season got underway. In her historic debut<\/a> on Thursday, her squad took an early lead before host Tri-City stormed back to hand the Hops a 9-2 loss. On Friday, the Hops jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first, and in the blink of an eye, the Dust Devils had plated three runs of their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This time, though, Hillsboro was able to shut Tri-City down and come away with a 7-3 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Even just after the first game, it just felt like a big weight off of my shoulders,\u201d Gajownik said. \u201cI was definitely in an easier mood today.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Her first win wouldn’t come easy. Immediately following the three-run triple from Tri-City\u2019s Straton Podaras that tied the game, starter Spencer Giesting issued his third walk of the night. Right then, Gajownik made the decision to take him out after just 1 2\/3 frames, even after using four different relievers on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Needless to say, it paid off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Southpaw Hugh Fisher induced a groundout on the first pitch he threw, kicking off a string of seven scoreless, two-hit innings tossed by the bullpen. In total, five relievers combined to finish out the game for Hillsboro, and the staff combined to strike out 14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Fisher did a great job slamming it in on them and getting us out of that inning,” Gajownik said. “All the pitchers kinda coming in and the guys not allowing the momentum to shift … I was more so proud of them and how they handled it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A five-run fifth, courtesy of a wild pitch and RBI singles from J.J. D\u2019Orazio and Jacen Roberson, put the Hops up 7-3 and lightened the load for Gajownik, even if walks or hit batsmen kept causing traffic on the basepaths until the end.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Her confidence in her players, her staff and herself never waivered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cOur staff is doing a really good job before the game going, \u2018Hey, in this situation, what are we doing here?\u2019 Kind of laying a little bit of the groundwork,\u201d Gajownik said. \u201cIn the moment, it may seem like \u2018Oh my gosh, what are we doing?\u2019 But we\u2019re doing a really good job beforehand making it easier on ourselves for that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

At the start of her managerial career, Gajownik is still getting used to the balance between just doing her job and realizing that everything she does is a \u2018first.\u2019 But she knows as well as anyone that eventually, there will be no more firsts. It will just be normal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI had a woman a couple of days ago who said she was so happy that I have this opportunity and that I\u2019m in this position, and she wishes she had had it,\u201d Gajownik said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be great that there\u2019s not going to be that many females saying that anymore, really in any profession, but especially in the sports world. It\u2019s great to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

<\/main><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Michele Byron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6:14 AM UTC Hillsboro Hops manager Ronnie Gajownik smiles after winning her first game as skipper.Hillsboro Hops The first thing Ronnie Gajownik did was grab her speakers from her office. She put on Danzel\u2019s “Pump It Up” and put it on full blast as she entered the Hillsboro Hops clubhouse. The other thing she had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":626853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2691,534,121282],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-626852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-earns","8":"category-financial","9":"category-gajownik"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}