13-year-old Kylee Erb brings skills (and sass) to team of older boys in St. Paul baseball league

Tee-ball is hilarious and coach's-pitch offers a slight improvement in challenge. The true turning point as to whether a young person wants to continue with baseball comes when the players start pitching.

That's when most half-innings end after a team gives all of its players who showed up a turn at the plate, and rarely with three outs.

The grand game remains a contest of considerable confusion for a majority of participants at ages 9 or 10. I was watching grandson Luke in one of those a few years back in Woodbury.

The best player was a young lady. She would catch reachable throws at first base. She also knew when to throw to a base and when not to (a trait often missing at older levels). She was fast and could hit.

I was so impressed — make that so relieved — to see such a feeling for the actual game of baseball that her father received a tap on the shoulder from me to say:

"That daughter of yours is great."

Her name is Kylee Erb. She didn't show up after that summer in one of Luke's games. This spring, Tom Erb, her dad, sent an email revealing that Kylee was still playing baseball, now in St. Paul.

Trouble was, the Midway program — in which she had a rewarding season as a 12-year-old last summer — had folded. And her team now, as a 13-year-old, would become the Midway Blazers, an established 15-and-under team in St. Paul's RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner-City) League.

On Thursday, the Blazers and St. Agnes, the top two teams in the 15U Buxton Division, had a 6 p.m. game at East Twins field at Prosperity Park.

The infield grass was pale brown and thin, and slides into bases would produce plumes of dust. There seemed to be no complaints from the participants or the 30-40 spectators.

Except Linda, the grandmother of Jarvis Adams, one of the Blazers' standouts.

"Miss Linda can get emotional," said Kylee, in an understatement.

Dai'Vette Madison, mother to Kylee and older brother Keegan (an RBI All-Star), was standing at the fence when Linda got extremely worked up over an inaccurate throw made by a Blazer to third base.

"We all call her 'Grandma,' because she's everyone's grandma on the team, and she wants us to play great," said Madison, as Linda raced to cool down after that ill-advised sidearm throw.

Kylee weighs about 90 and looks very undersized playing with these older boys. She doesn't start, but Justis Czarnik — the Blazers' coach and part of the Twins' instructional staff for RBI players — tries to get Kylee playing time.

"Kylee's a terrific athlete and she has the desire to continue baseball as a high school player," Czarnik said. "She has a chance to do that."

Czarnik then added: "She has sass."

Admittedly, maintaining that has been a test when facing this new level of competition.

"It's not like I hate not getting to play all the time," Kylee said. "It's just getting used to that, and more so, when I do play, facing pitchers throwing a lot harder … throwing curveballs and sliders.

"Keegan's been helping me, getting me to stay in the box on those pitches."

Chelsey Falzone runs the RBI program for the Twins. She played baseball through her high school years in junior programs, then switched to softball in college at Bethel.

"We had a big turnout for our RBI All-Star team tryouts — about 70 players, and Kylee was the only female," Falzone said. "I see her out there, how much she wants it, and think, 'You go girl.' "

Brother Keegan will be on the Twins' RBI All-Star team that will go to the regionals in Chicago later this summer. When he got to first on Thursday, the members of the Erb family — including grandparents — in attendance said in unison:

"Watch this."

Keegan promptly stole second and third, then lured the rival catcher in trying to pick him off third base, and came home.

In a cloud of dust.

The MLB Network was in town recently and for its regular feature on RBI athletes and spotlighted Ademola Adedigma. He's a Nigerian who came to the U.S. at age 11 and wasn't introduced to baseball until three years ago.

He's a muscular power hitter. Everyone calls him "Daniel." Shohei might be better, as he bounced the fence in left-center and hit the fence in right-center in his first two at-bats Thursday.

The RBI program will be featured with a brief ceremony before the July 3 game at Target Field.

Mike Radcliff, the Twins' legendary talent evaluator, died in early February.

"Mike's family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the RBI programs of Minneapolis and St. Paul," Falzone said. "And we're going to have Keegan and Kylie at home plate to accept the check."

Note: When dust settled Thursday, it was Blazers 8, St. Agnes 7. Blazers are now 6-0.