Kayla Who? Meet Kyara, New Bedford’s Own Female Baseball Star

With all the talk recently about 12-year-old Kayla Roncin fueling her Tom's River, New Jersey Little League team to the state championship, a lot has been made about a girl being the star of a baseball team. But as I've pointed out on the air the past few days, it's nothing new in these parts.

Thirteen-year-old Kyara Sylvia has been tearing it up at the plate and on the mound for Kitchens & Baths of the Whaling City Youth Baseball League for the past couple of years, and has multiple game-winning hits and dominant pitching performances on her resume. She's also part of the Whaling City All-Star team as well. This season, she ranks among the league leaders in all major categories, including hits, runs scored and batting average, and on the mound, she dominates the ERA and strikeout categories.

"KiKi," as she's known to friends, family and teammates joined me on the air recently to discuss what it's like to be a girl playing alongside the boys, and what she thinks about all the attention being shown to Roncin.

We also raised the issue of what Kyara will do once she gets to high school, where the MIAA won't allow females to play baseball because they feel there is a "comparable" program with softball--even though most who play either sport will tell you they are vastly different.