At the high school level, there were 8,111 boys who played baseball in Colorado this past season, but only 95 girls. There were 6,900 girls who played softball at the high school level.

It's even rarer for girls to play youth baseball, and according to John Malkin, Broomfield Baseball League president, that marks a downward trend.

"We had as many as six or seven in years past, but as softball has become more organized and competitive, our numbers were at one last year," Malkin said. "In 2009, I would guess we will not have any girls playing competitively in BBL out of 400 players."

Former Colorado Silver Bullets pro baseball player Michelle Delloso left youth baseball for fast-pitch softball when she was 12. She was inspired to try out for her middle school softball team after watching women's competitive fastpitch softball on TV.

"I excelled pretty quickly because of the baseball background," said Delloso, 39, who works for Adidas as a national marketing manager for so......