Hillsboro Hops name Ronnie Gajownik manager, 1st female skipper at High-A level

The Hillsboro Hops announced on Friday that Ronnie Gajownik will be the team’s manager in 2023. Hillsboro is the Arizona Diamondbacks’ High-A level affiliate.

Gajownik becomes the first female skipper at the High-A level and second overall in MiLB.

She spent the 2021 season as a video coordinator for Hillsboro before spending last season as the first base coach for the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the D-backs’ Double-A affiliate.

“I’m very grateful to Josh Barfield and the Diamondbacks for giving me the opportunity to begin my managerial career with the Hillsboro Hops,” Gajownik said in a press release on Friday.

“I’m ecstatic to return to Hillsboro in this elevated role and am fortunate to start this journey with the awesome staff of Wright, Hernandez, Ramirez, Harrel and Mukohchi. A huge thank you to everyone who has helped me become the person and coach I am today.”

Before Gajownik joined the Diamondbacks organization, she served as an assistant at the college level at both Liberty University and UMass. The infielder also won a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games for Team USA.

The Orlando native graduated from South Florida in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary social science while being a two-year starter for the Bulls softball team.

Ronnie Gajownik is making history this season with the @HillsboroHops! pic.twitter.com/fePMK6f7IR

— MLB (@MLB) January 20, 2023

“All the people before me, we’re in a really long relay race,” Gajownik said in the video. “Rachel Fulton, she had the baton and I’m running after and I’m grabbing it.

“And we’re just going to be constantly passing it to one another saying, ‘Hey, how far can you get?’ And as long as we keep passing that baton on to the next one, we’re going to be able to go really, really far.

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