16-year old Eri Yoshida will become the first female to play professional baseball with the men in Japan.

Yoshida, a student at Kawasaki Kita High School in Kanagawa Prefecture, was selected in the 7th round of an amateur draft by the Kobe 9 Cruise.

The team is part of the four team Kansai Independent league which formed back in April.  Other teams include the Akashi Red Soldiers, Kishu Rangers and Osaka Gold Villicanes.

Yoshida took part in a tryout earlier this month and held her own. The right-hander with an outstanding knuckle ball kept male batters hitless for one inning helping her become one of the 33 players picked in the draft.

Yoshida said was happy about the news and is ready to join the team.

Japan used to have a women's professional baseball federation from 1950-1952.  No woman however has played as a professional since Nippon Professional Baseball dropped a clause in 1991 that had shut women out from a medical point of view.