Little League® International is pleased to announce that Jenny Dalton-Hill will be enshrined into the Little League Hall of Excellence this August, becoming only the seventh woman to earn the highest honor that Little League can bestow.
“Since her time on the Little League fields, to her incredible career as a baseball and softball player and broadcaster, Jenny has been an inspiration to future generations of players, coaches, parents, and fans for decades,” said Stephen D. Keener, Little League President and CEO. “As we join in the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Title IX this summer, we are honored to present one of our top Girls with Game with this prestigious honor and thank Jenny for all she has done, and continues to do, for Little League and the game of baseball and softball as a whole.”
A graduate of the Centennial Little League program in Glendale, California, Ms. Dalton-Hill became familiar with the big stage early on in her career as she had the opportunity to live out her own World Series dream playing in the 1989 Senior League Softball World Series. While her team unfortunately fell in the championship game to the team from Naples, Florida, the memories she took from that experience have lasted her a lifetime.
I got my start in @LittleLeague
What a perfect message to have instilled from such a young age but let’s turn that arrow and face it going up from left to right and trending upwards.
Always progressing and always moving forward. https://t.co/GrG5Fjsgqu
— Jenny Dalton-Hill (@JennyDaltonHill) March 29, 2022
From 1993-96, Ms. Dalton-Hill competed for the University of Arizona, earning an All-Pac-10 conference honor with a .318 average as a freshman as her team went on to compete at the Women’s College World Series.
Over the course of her collegiate career, Ms. Dalton-Hill went on to be named an All-American, the Pac-10 Player of the Year, Honda Sports Award for Softball Player of the Year, and the Women’s College World Series Most Outstanding Player as a senior. Upon graduation, Ms. Dalton-Hill held the school records in career RBIs, walks, and runs, and continues to hold the NCAA record today for most RBIs with 328.
In addition to her softball career, Ms. Dalton-Hill also broke barriers, playing baseball as a member of both the Colorado Silver Bullets and the United States Women’s National Baseball Team, where she earned a bronze medal at the 2010 Women’s Baseball World Cup. While eligible to compete in the 1996 Olympics, she decided to go on to become a volunteer coach at the University of Arizona in 1997, helping lead the school to their fifth national title, and later went on to coach at the University of Kentucky for two years. In 2001, she was inducted into the University of Arizona Wildcats Hall of Fame and is now also a member of the USA Baseball Board of Directors as one of their three 10+ Year Athletes.
Today, she continues to support the Little League program as an ESPN broadcaster at the Little League Softball® World Series and continues to inspire future generations of softball players through her role as a broadcaster for the Women’s College World Series and her role on the 7 Innings Podcast.
Ms. Dalton-Hill will officially be enshrined into the Hall of Excellence this August as part of the Little League World Series. More information about the specific celebration will be made closer to the event.