“I remember walking up to the batter’s box and, for the first time, feeling confident,” Apgar said. “My legs weren’t shaking. I was standing there thinking, ‘I’m about to hit the crap out of this ball!’”

Apgar grounded out in her first at-bat, but the outcome was beside the point. The moment represented something far more meaningful than a result in the scorebook.

“I feel like my teammates now,” she said.

Read the full article at mlb.com.

Irolla is building a prosthetic for Apgar with a gel liner and a hook extension that is designed to fit around the bat and provide a more secure attachment. Doctors used some of the bones in Apgar’s left leg and foot to help strengthen her arm when she was a kid, so HSS also is creating custom foot orthotics for her with built-in rigid plates.

“She’s very open to trying new things. She just wants to perform at the highest level and everything that she can do to get there,” Irolla said. “It’s really nice to have somebody be that open and creative and motivated.”

Apgar has no feeling in her nub. During one visit with Irolla, she tried on a prosthetic that mimicked the sensation of touch.

“It was the first time that I had held a bat and it felt like I was holding it with two hands. So I started tearing up,” she said. “It was such a mind-blowing feeling.”

Read the full article at apnews.com.