Meet the Women of the Little League® Hall of Excellence

Enshrinement in the Little League® Hall of Excellence is the highest honor Little League International can bestow on any of its alumni. To date, eight women, who have all excelled in various and unique professional fields as adults, have been honored in this way. Some of them played Little League Baseball®, some played Little League Softball®, but all of them learned the values of character, courage and loyalty as Little Leaguers®.

Cathy Gerring

Inducted into the Little League Hall of Excellence in 2004, Cathy Gerring spent 20 years as a professional golfer on the Ladies Professional Golf Tour (LPGA) tour. Ms. Gerring, a self-proclaimed lover of all sports, got her start in Little League® Senior Division Baseball playing in the Times Corners Little League (Fort Wayne, Ind.). She found success at the collegiate level, as a member of the Ohio State University (OSU) varsity women’s golf team. While at OSU, Ms. Gerring was named an All-American, earned Big Ten Medalist Honors, and was named Ohio State University’s Athlete of the Year. She joined the LPGA tour in 1985, and enjoyed her most successful season in 1990. That year, she won three tournaments and helped the United States team win the inaugural Solheim Cup. Overcoming serious injuries early in her career, she was able to return from to the LPGA tour again, retiring from professional golf in 2006.

Nancy Santo-Padre (dosReis)

Ms. Santo-Padre was enshrined to the Little League Hall of Excellence in 2004. She played Little League Softball® with North Providence West Little League (Providence, R.I.) and made it all the way to the 1979 Little League Softball World Series in Waco, Texas. Later, she became a detective with the Rhode Island Police force where she was most well-known for her 1996 capture, along with her K-9 partner, of a convicted murder who had escaped from a maximum security prison. Ms. Santo-Padre is now retired after 23 years on the force.

Krissy (Wendell) Pohl

Krissy Pohl, a Little League Baseball® alum, made history in the 1994 Little League Baseball World Series, playing for the Brooklyn Park American Little League (Minn.) team when she became the first girl to start at catcher in a Little League Baseball World Series game. She entered the Little League Hall of Excellence in 2004. After her Little League days, Mrs. Pohl made a name for herself in women’s ice hockey, collecting the Minnesota Ms. Hockey award in 2000; and the 2005 Patty Kazmier…