The Washington Nationals are enjoying out one other misplaced season. At 23 video games below .500, Washington is headed for its sixth straight dropping season. The Nationals’ terrible pitching made headlines earlier this month when the membership made historical past as the one staff to permit 80 hits, 50 runs and 10 homers in a four-game span.
However on Thursday, the Nationals featured a high quality pitcher. Washington invited former Little League World Collection star Mo’Ne Davis to throw out the ceremonial first pitch previous to the collection opener in opposition to the Philadelphia Phillies.
MO’NE FIRST PITCH
caught by former @littleleague world collection opponent robert hassell iii 🥲 pic.twitter.com/Z22ZKkTw9Q
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 14, 2025
And, for an added twist, Nationals rookie Robert Hassell III was behind the plate to catch Davis’ pitch. The 2 final took the sphere collectively through the 2014 Little League World Collection. Again then, Hassell represented Nashville and Davis performed for Philadelphia.
Nationals welcome former Little League World Collection star
Davis turned an in a single day sensation in 2014. She led Philadelphia to a 4-0 win over Hassell’s Nashville staff and within the course of turned the primary woman to throw a shutout and earn a win within the Little League World Collection.
Davis allowed simply two hits whereas putting out eight batters in six scoreless innings. And he or she nonetheless remembers dealing with the Nationals’ first-year outfielder. “I used to be simply actually feeling every part that sport and I ended up putting him out, which was fairly cool,” Davis mentioned, per MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato.
“So I’ve bragging rights over him proper now. He can’t get his redemption again from me,” she added.
Hassell remembers the second effectively. “It was loopy. She struck me out. It was on my birthday. Then I obtained a base-hit off of her. However the entire crowd was screaming her identify, we have been actually younger. It was loopy… She was actually good,” he mentioned, by way of MLB’s official account on Instagram.
Hassell went on to get drafted eighth general by the San Diego Padres in 2020. He then landed with the Nationals as a part of the Juan Soto commerce in 2022. Hassell, Washington’s thirteenth ranked prospect, obtained known as up by the Nationals in Could and despatched again right down to Triple-A in June. However he was recalled on August 1 and has obtained common enjoying time in heart discipline and proper since then.
As for Davis, she’s not completed with baseball but. Final month she confirmed that she’ll check out for the brand new Girls’s Skilled Baseball League. In partnership with Main League Baseball, the WPBL may have six franchises and is ready to debut in 2026.