First female MLB umpire Jen Pawol achieves 92.72% accuracy in her first game.

Jen Pawol Makes History as First Female MLB Umpire

After more than a decade in the minor leagues, Jen Pawol made MLB history over the weekend as the first female umpire in a big league game.

She debuted as a base umpire during Saturday’s doubleheader between the Atlanta Braves and the Miami Marlins, but made history behind the plate in Sunday’s finale.

Umpscorecards, which tracks the performance of home plate umpires throughout the season, reported that Pawol’s accuracy for balls and strikes was an impressive 92.72%. Specifically, she accurately called 140 out of 151 pitches.

In comparison, the average accuracy for umpires this season is around 94.23%. Breaking down her performance further, Pawol’s ball calling accuracy stood at 95%, making only five incorrect calls out of 104. The average for umpires in this category is 97%.

Her strike accuracy, however, was a bit lower at 88%, having called six out of 47 strikes incorrectly. While this was slightly below the expected accuracy, she received positive feedback from Marlins’ manager Clayton McCullough after the game.

“I think Jen did a really good job,” McCullough stated. “She was calm and managed the game well. It was a big day for her and for Major League Baseball.”

Pawol, who played softball at Hofstra University and has officiated over 1,200 games in the minors, shared her thoughts on achieving this milestone: “My dream actually came true,” she said as she stepped onto the field during Saturday’s games.