Balls and Batts

Dawson Batts, 13, born without his left arm, hopes to play college baseball for N.C. State University and get drafted by the Boston Red Sox. He’s already achieved sports success: This summer he was the only North Carolina boy in his age group invited to New York as a National Youth Baseball Championships All-Star.

The Clinton, N.C., eighth-grader told me, “I can do with one arm what you can do with two.” It’s an advantage of sorts that his developing brain has never known a second arm. In both pitching and fielding, he’s learned to transfer ball and glove fairly seamlessly. But this summer he separated his left shoulder sliding into third base. His mom, Erica Batts, recalls, “He pitched the rest of the game,” and didn’t let on he was injured.

The four- to six-hour surgery scheduled for Oct. 16 was Dawson’s 10th lifetime procedure on that arm—and the most serious. It still could be dream-ending if it’s not handled correctly. But after weeks of physical therapy, he hopes to be back to competitive baseball by January. Dawson and his dad, Shane Batts, have been playing since Dawson was 3. “If they’re not actually at the field practicing, they’re out in the yard playing,” mom Erica said. “Every. Single. Day.”

Dawson also plays golf and basketball, and throws a mean football spiral, but baseball is No. 1. He wears a cap with his favorite Bible verse—Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Boys wrestling girls

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa., has formally banned girls from its contact sports teams. The mission of forming Christian adults and teaching “gospel values,” Bishop Ronald Gainer said, is incompatible with co-ed sports that “involve substantial and potentially immodest physical contact.” Many of the diocese’s schools already had similar policies, and they aren’t rare, but the desire for “safety and modesty” has become controversial. Faced with a change.org campaign for a girl who wanted to play football, the Philadelphia Archdiocese last March, nudged by Title IX lawyers, made an exception for Catholic Youth Organizations. —A.B.

Bench my mentor

Goalkeeper Hope Solo was set to play Oct. 15 when the United States Women’s National Team began its 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign. But she also has a Nov. 4 trial date for an alleged domestic assault in which police say she repeatedly punched her sister and nephew. Teammate Jillian Loyden wrote in USA Today that while Solo is her mentor, coaches should have benched her. “I cannot stand by as young fans receive the message that this behavior—even if the allegations proved to be inaccurate—can go unnoticed,” she said. Loyden’s sister was murdered in 2012, allegedly by her fiancé. —A.B.