SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The sold-out crowd went bananas for the Savannah Bananas debut at Petco Park on Friday night.

While the team stepped foot on the field in America's Finest City for the first time, not everyone was new to San Diego.

“I grew up in this area," said Kelsie Whitmore. "It’s a healing place for me.”

Whitmore, a Temecula native, became the first woman to debut in the MLB partner league when she signed with the Staten Island Ferry Hawks.

“There’s so many young girls that I get to meet that come up to me and say, 'hey, I play baseball now because I saw you,'” she said.

Now, she returned home as the pitcher for the Savannah Bananas.

“Getting a chance to play on this field, to pitch off this mound, it’s a dream,” she said, remembering all the times she watched the Padres play

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