Genevieve Beacom made history with the Melbourne Aces on Saturday. With her appearance against the Adelaide Giants, Beacom became the first woman to play professional baseball in Australia.

Beacom, 17, entered the contest with the Aces trailing by four in the sixth inning. The leadoff hitter reached base against Beacom, but she managed two groundouts against the next two batters. A walk put another runner on base, but Beacom erased the threat with a flyout to end the scoreless inning.

Just like that, Beacom has a 0.00 ERA in the Australian Baseball League. Despite Beacom’s promising debut, the Aces lost the contest 7-1.

Perth Heat say they have been blindsided after the Australian Baseball League cancelled the 2021-22 season.

The ABL has announced the upcoming season, previously slated to begin in December, will not go ahead, blaming the ongoing challenges presented by COVID-19.

Perth Heat general manager Steve Nelkovski said the club was heartbroken by the news and as recently as last week, they were still expecting the season to do ahead.

“It’s a really tough pill to swallow. We were presented a couple of options late last week, in regards to an updated schedule and this week, the season has been cancelled,” he said.

“We were confident the season was going ahead a week ago. We had dinner with our players, we told them to be ready for December 10.“

Nelkovski said the decision would have ramifications on several aspects of the sport in both the short and long term.

“Financially, the impact is significant and will be significant for years to come. There’s been a huge investment back into the brand and organisation over the last three years to get us to this point,” he said.