COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Women's Intersport Network (WIN) for Columbia will hold its 21st annual WIN Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at the Southwell Complex on the Columbia College campus. Ila Borders, the first female to play men's collegiate or integrated professional baseball, will serve as the luncheon's keynote speaker, which will last from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (CT).

Each year, WIN for Columbia awards female athletes with connections to the Columbia community for their excellence in their respective sport and their involvement within the community. The awards luncheon will take place in conjunction with National Girls & Women in Sports Day.

Awards will recognize female Youth Athlete of the Year, High School Sportswoman of the Year, Collegiate Sportswoman of the Year, Gladys Stankowski Sportswoman of the Year, Coach of the Year and Mentor of the Year, as well as an Inspiration Award recipient. Winners are voted on by WIN members, chosen from finalists selected by the WIN board of directors following nominations received from the public.

Before this year's awards recipients are announced, guests will get a chance to hear from Borders.  As a female pitcher in men's leagues, Borders achieved numerous baseball milestones at the college and professional levels, including being the first female pitcher to start a men's professional baseball game. In four seasons from 1997 to 2000, she appeared in 52 games and posted a record of 2–4 and 6.75 earned run average while recording 36 strikeouts. 

Borders became one of the first female pitchers in integrated men's professional baseball (female players such as Tori Stone had played in the Negro Leagues) when in 1997 she signed with the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League, playing in her first regular season game on May 31, 1997.  She was the first female pitcher to start a men's NCAA or NAIA college baseball game, playing for Southern California College in the 1994–96 seasons and Whittier College in the 1997 season. She was also the first woman to receive a baseball scholarship to play men's collegiate baseball and first woman to earn a win in men's collegiate baseball. She just wrote a book "Making My Pitch," which came out this year. 

Prior to the awards luncheon, Borders will be available to the media at 10:30 a.m. in the Bixby Room inside Southwell Complex.

For more information please visit winforcolumbia.com and direct all questions to WIN president Deborah Marshall via email at dmarshall@columbiatribune.com.