When Jaime Barta’s father coached baseball in the Northwoods League, she always tagged along. Barta observed the college baseball players — many of them high Major League draft picks — train and showcase their talents under Joel Barta in the collegiate summer league, searching for what separated them from others.

At times, Barta asked her dad: “What makes these players so special?” They’re the same person every day, Joel responded, recognizing the commitment college baseball takes.

Even though she was just a child, Barta made that her mission, too. Growing up in Bismarck, North Dakota, she wasn’t exposed to the elite competition most future collegiate athletes are. She hit .581 one year and struck out 137 batters in a single season. After bouncing around from North Dakota State to Butler Community College, Barta enters the 2020 season as a junior outfielder for Syracuse, and one local news station said she’s the first softball player from North Dakota to sign with a Power 5 school.

“It’s kind of cool to be that pride piece of North Dakota,” Barta said.

With a mom who played college softball and a dad who coaches college baseball at Northland College, Barta always had the hitting and fielding resources available. As a result, she set Bismarck High School records in batting average, runs in a season, hits in a season and even toed the rubber — breaking her high school’s mark for strikeouts in a season.

These numbers didn’t get her the attention one would expect, though, simply because the competition wasn’t high-caliber.

“I mean, I was realistic about the competition so that wasn’t frustrating,” Barta said. “It was more just about going into my summer season and realizing this is a different level. Just not focusing on stats and outcomes.”

After high school, Barta spent a year at North Dakota State before starting in the outfield in 2019 at Butler Community College. Then, she got the opportunity at Syracuse.

At the Felsberg Invitational last weekend, she started in left field and collected a pair of hits. She’s ready to take on the Power 5 competition, since she’s risen to the occasion all her life, her dad said.

“You’ll see people that think, ‘Wow my daughter is really talented’,” Joel said, “and then when you raise the degree of difficulty, the success goes down and for her, she almost performed better the higher the competition got.”

Back in North Dakota, Barta is influencing more North Dakotans to strive for Division I. One of her younger sisters, Emma, is taking a similar path to Barta’s, and girls from home reach out to discover how she made it to college. Dedication, Barta responds. The same key her father once shared.

“She’s basically trying to prove to the world that, ‘Hey, we can play,’” Joel said.

Published on February 11, 2020 at 11:24 pm

Contact Cameron: cbmckeon@syr.edu