'I want to do that'

Watching a chance TV interview set Ronnie Gajownik on a path that led to her managing a minor league team

- SAVANNAH MCCANN

While watching college softball one day in 2010, Ronnie Gajownik saw an interview with a USA Women's National Baseball Team member and thought:

"Wait, that's a thing? I want to do that." Gajownik submitted a tryout video and joined the 40-woman roster in 2011.

Four years later, Gajownik and Team USA made it to the Pan American Games in Toronto, where they won gold.

She called the experience absolutely amazing-not just playing the game she loves on a global stage but because of what it meant to her family.

"My parents raised me (saying) that your last name and who you are as a person, it's huge, it's everything," Gajownik said. "It's a brand that my dad and mom have made with our name. It was really cool to have that moment of having 'Team USA' on the front and then 'Gajownik' on the back."