It’s April in South Orange and Maplewood and the SOMA Little League Baseball program is in full swing.
The program, jointly sponsored by the South Orange and Maplewood Departments of Recreation, is “for the children of the two towns” ages 5–15, and while it isn’t gender specific, it attracts many more boys than girls. According to the program website, “Nearly 800 children played last season across more than 69 teams.” Last year, two of those players were girls.
This year there is only one girl in the baseball division (3rd grade and up): Ella Prager.
Ella is 10 years old and a starting pitcher to boot — as well as an alternate pitcher in the travel league.
Ella Prager. (Photo courtesy of Josh Prager.)
Quiet and reserved, Ella lets her pitching do the talking. Especially fastballs: Two-seam. Four-seam.
Ella’s family converted two horseshoe pits in the backyard into a pitcher’s mound and home plate. When it’s not too cold outside, she said, she throws to her pitchback or to her father every day.
That hard work has paid off: This year she’s a starting pitcher for her rec team, the BNG Bengals.
“My favorite part of baseball is pitching,” she said, “because I like to control the ball.”
Ella’s father, Josh Prager, who coaches Ella alongside Ian Grunes and Marc Stephens, said that one reason Ella’s control is so good is because of an event in his past that affects how they practice. At 19, a bus accident left him with a disability so he sits behind home plate while they play catch. Ella has to throw the ball right to him — or run to get the ball herself.
He added that he is happy Ella enjoys baseball so much because, as a former Little League pitcher himself, he knows sports can build confidence.
“She doesn’t like the spotlight, but in baseball, she loves it,” Prager said.
Specifically, on the pitcher’s mound, where, unlike some pitchers, Ella says she stays calm.
Ella started playing baseball when she was just 3 years old. “She loved to run around,” said Prager. “I asked her if she wanted to play baseball, and she said ‘yes’.”
Ella beamed when her dad told the story of how he used to catch her throws with his bare hands but two years ago, he had to start using a glove because she threw too hard.
Ella’s mom, Shuly Prager, said that the year Ella was eligible to play baseball, they also signed her up for softball because all of Ella’s girlfriends were playing it, but Ella liked baseball better so she stayed with it.
Her younger sister Eden, who now plays softball, chimed in, saying, “Ella taught me to throw!”
Ella says her favorite baseball player is Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe. And one time, while attending a Yankees’ game, Volpe tossed a ball to her in the stands. She now keeps that ball mounted on the wall next to her bed.
Of his daughter’s baseball journey so far, Prager said, “It’s a nice story because it tells other girls that they can do anything. And the boys [on the team], since they’re so little, they just think ‘Oh, cool’. It’s not a gender thing.”
Ella’s coaches, Ian Grunes and Marc Stephens, said they are grateful to have Ella on the team and find it inspiring that she is one of the best players.
Grunes explained that during Ella’s first year on their team (2026 is her third year with them) they didn’t yet realize just what a really good pitcher she was.
“It was half coach-pitch, half kid-pitch,” he said. “And we really couldn’t see how good she was at the time because the coach would pitch most of the time.”
Their second year with Ella, Grunes said it was all kid-pitch.
“She kind of surprised everybody. She smoked it every single game. She was a secret weapon,” he said. “And no one knew, because everyone assumed she was ‘just a girl’ and that she wasn’t that good. But she smoked everybody.”
Khadijah Lane is a 12th grader at Columbia High School, working as paid student freelancer with Village Green through a grant from the NJ Civic Information Consortium.
Editor Laura Griffin contributed to this story.
