How did MLB's first female umpire fare in her debut behind the plate?

The first female umpire in Major League Baseball made her debut Saturday

working a doubleheader between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves at Truist Park

An historic moment for the game and for Jen Powell, who's been working for a decade to reach her dream

Powell worked first base during Game 1 of the doubleheader Saturday and was at third base during Game 2

She had several family members in the crowd during the action and heard from a number of fans before first pitch

as she walked the field with the rest of her crew. Powell admitted she was anxious after the news broke

and emotional when it finally hit her that she had realized her dream

This morning I'm like, we just got to get out there now. We got to do this and make some calls because I was, you know

just all the emotion and stuff talking about it the past few days since the news broke

and just having it as a dream for 10 years. You know, the dream came true today and it's just been incredible

Powell had an even bigger moment Sunday, calling balls and strikes for the first time

So how'd she do in the spotlight? Well, according to umpire scorecards, not bad for a debut

she called 92.7% of balls and strikes accurately during the series finale

getting 140 of the 151 taken pitches accurate. The umpire average for 2025 is 94.2%

Another online measuring service, umpire auditor posted some numbers on X and said

umpire Jen Powell missed the first call of the game but settled in to call a relatively unremarkable game She missed 14 calls and had a correct call rate of 90 She was ranked 13 of 15 umpires on the day

She also received high praise from managers Brian Snitker and Clayton McCullough

Jen did a really nice job. I think she seemed very composed back there. She handled and managed the game very well

And a big day for her, big day for Major League Baseball

So I congratulated her again on that because it's quite the accomplishment and wish her the best moving forward

Her 92.7% hit rate puts her nose to nose with several full-time Major League umpires

including veterans Laz Diaz and C.B. Buckner, who tend to draw the most criticism from fans

She's also on par with more anonymous umpires like Bruce Dreckman and Carlos Torres

The 48-year-old's road to the big leagues has been like many players and coaches

She was a softball player at Hofstra University and umpired college softball games for six seasons before attending a Major League Baseball tryout camp in 2015

She worked her way through the minors and in 2024 became the first female in 21 years to umpire games in Major League Spring training

It's not known when Powell will umpire another Major League game, but after passing the first test, she'll stay on the call-up list with 15 or so AAA call-up candidates

Marlins starting pitcher Cal Quantrill said, If this is normal, then we're going to treat it normal too

I thought it was fine, and I think she did a quality job. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis