Anonymous wrote:If she can't handle this, then this is not the sport for her. Probably any ball-based sport is not the sport for her, frankly. In my daughter's very first soccer game, she got hit by the ball in the stomach - the girl kicking it was twice her size, it knocked my child down and knocked the wind out of her. She said she was so scared because she couldn't breathe and couldn't talk for a few seconds. Guess what? It's a year and a half later and she's still playing soccer. She may not be the most aggressive kid, and she may cringe when the ball comes towards her sometimes, but she's still playing.
Seriously. And I am surprised, OP, that you were not expecting it. Yes, there are way more girls getting hit by pitch in the early years of rec kid pitch, but this is part of the sport at every level, and not just with sucky pitchers. My 13 year old daughter is a great pitcher with 75+ strike percentage but she hits a few batters every season and at 50-65 mph (the range of what we see now), that hurts a lot more than whatever they are throwing in 10u or 12u rec (25 to 40 mph?). At this age, most of the girls just run to first without even showing any sign of discomfort.