But that’s exactly what happened when Dutch women’s national team representative and three-time World Cup pitcher Loes Asmus contacted the Bendigo East Baseball Club looking to play ball.

The result could be the accidental recruiting coup of the year.

Asmus, 24, stepped up on the mound in her first local men’s match last month and threw a winning game against Falcons - a team that had claimed 14 of the past 15 A-grade premierships.

Today, Women in Sport follows her journey from little leaguer to the big diamond, and from the bustling port city of Rotterdam to a milking shed in rural Victoria.

How did you come to play baseball?

My father Ben plays baseball and softball, so I literally grew up on the field as I used to go and watch his games when I was little.

I started playing baseball when I was seven, but in Holland girls were obligated to go to softball when you turned 12, so I did.

When I was around 18, a player from the Dutch men’s baseball team and his girlfriend set up women’s baseball, handing out flyers around the clubs, so I started training with them. We eventually joined a lower-level men’s competition because we were the only women’s team in Holland.

Did that team represent Holland in the 2010 World Cup?

There were not a lot of girls playing baseball at that stage so it was kind of limited to our team. But it has grown and now we have selection days and try-outs.

We still don’t have a women’s competition. There are a couple of all-girl teams that play in men’s competitions and the rest do what I am doing here, which is join a men’s team and play with them.

How many World Cup carnivals have you been to and how did your team fare?

I have been to three - all that Holland has competed in. I went to Japan in 2014, Canada in 2012 and Venezuela in 2010.

We are the newest World Cup team so we don’t go so well, but we have had a lot of close games.

Japan always wins - they have a complete women’s league and get paid to play and we just can’t think about trying to compete.

In our first year, we were actually leading Hong Kong but there was a terrible accident and one of the Hong Kong girls got shot in the leg (by a stray bullet fired from outside the playing arena in the city of Caracas).

Everyone was so frightened, the game was called off and the Hong Kong team went home. The girl was lucky that nothing essential was hit and she returned and was the team captain in Japan.

We finished 11th out of the 12 teams that year; won over Cuba and were seventh out of eight in Canada; and eighth of eight in Japan, but some games were so close we could have been higher.

What brings you to Australia?

 I was working full-time in Holland and realised if I had to do this for another 40 years I would get very depressed, so I saved some money to travel in Asia for a year after the Japan World Cup. 

I went to Bali because I thought I might meet some backpackers to travel with... and I met Luke (Newton), who is from Echuca. 

I followed him back here in late September and am now on a working holiday visa, milking cows on a dairy farm near Echuca. 

And throwing a mixed bag of pitches against the local men?

I decided that while I was here, I needed to find somewhere to play baseball. So I used Find a Club on the internet to locate the nearest competition and Bendigo East had easy-to-find contact details.

I am really happy that I’m here and everyone has been very nice and welcomed me really well.

I think they were happy to have you as their secret weapon!

I am very competitive in everything I do and I like winning.

But the reason I love baseball is pitching. I am not a softball pitcher - I tried it and I couldn’t do it at all. (Asmus is a base player on the softball diamond.)

Baseball pitching is such a powerful feeling - to strike people out or make it hard for them to bat the ball. I try to mix up my balls so that most people hit fly balls or don’t hit correctly so it’s easier to get them out. That’s mostly what happens when I play men - they hit me more. But when I play women, I strike them out more.

How long are you here for?

It’s difficult to say. We are going to Holland in June-July for a couple of weeks and I will finish the season here after that, then we plan to travel a bit in Australia.

But if I want to compete in the next World Cup in 2016, I need to play more competition. I can’t just go back home and say, hello, I haven’t done anything for a year but here I am! I have to play competition next year, but I have no idea where I am going to be.

Is the national program more professional these days? 

The set up for training and coaching this year is way better - we have new coaching staff and preparations started 18 months before the next World Cup. Previously, we just started six months ahead because everyone has a full-time job or goes to uni and baseball is just a hobby.  

What teams did you play for back home?

Before the last World Cup, I played in a girls’ team, a men’s team and the Dutch team. The girls were inexperienced and had just started playing, so it was about fun for me and I was able to pitch the whole game, every game. 

The men’s team was two levels higher so was obviously more challenging. The Dutch team is more weekly training sessions and later practice matches.

How fast is your fast ball?

A radar gun at the World Cup had it at about 110km/h.

What range of pitches do you have up your sleeve?

Ah, well I don’t think I want that in the newspaper, because then everyone else will know (laughs)!

What are your baseball goals?

My goal is always to get better because I am never satisfied with myself. Hopefully we can also get a higher ranking at the World Cup, but that’s more up to the team.

What was your job in Holland?

I finished a masters degree in neuropsychology but didn’t want to study for my PhD so I took a job recruiting seafarers to work on ships.

Does Luke enjoy sport, too?

Luke has played some softball in Melbourne because his aunt is involved. We played a practice match against a Special Olympics team recently because she is heavily involved in that and it was a lot of fun. He has also played cricket and Australian football.

Do you like Aussie rules?

It is just chaos. I watch it on television and try to understand what they are doing and I ask about the rules and it’s getting a little clearer. Luke is an Essendon follower so that makes me an Essendon follower too.

Are you a sporting celebrity in your home country?

No. In Holland it is a very small sport and nobody knows us. 

But when we went to Venezuela, it was as big as soccer is in Holland and everywhere we went, people came up and asked for autographs and photos. There are people walking around in Venezuela with my autograph on their hat, yet people in Holland don’t even know we have a national women’s baseball team! 

It’s so strange.