The Perth Standard
Caitlin Eynon grew up in Perth chasing the level around her, often as the only girl on the field. Now the Australian shortstop is bringing that standard to Los Angeles and the WPBL’s first season.
Baseball was already part of Caitlin Eynon’s life long before the Women’s Pro Baseball League existed.
Growing up in Perth, Australia, her early memories of the game were built around Little League charter tournaments over Easter weekend, Perth Heat clinics during school holidays and full days with her family moving between her games and her brothers’ games. The sport was not something she had to search for. It was already woven into the rhythm of her weekends.
Eynon spent much of her junior career in the same baseball spaces as the boys around her, and those years helped shape the standard she carried into everything that came next.
“I played with the boys all through juniors and was quite often the only girl on the team and I absolutely loved the challenge of keeping up with the boys,” Eynon said. “It was like they set the bar and I couldn’t stop until I exceeded it.”
Like many girls who love baseball, Eynon knew there were easier or more expected paths available. Softball was there. Other people were doing it. But baseball was the game she wanted, and staying with it became part of how she understood herself as an athlete.
“I wanted to be different and to not do what everybody else did,” Eynon said. “I had a point to prove to myself and to the baseball community.”
That belief followed her into higher levels of competition at a young age. Eynon made her senior women’s national championship debut at 13, an experience that placed her around older players and made pressure part of the lesson early.
“It was a gift in terms of helping me prepare to face pressure and adversity on even bigger stages,” Eynon said. “If I could handle a gold medal game at 13 at a national championship level, I knew I would be prepared for a World Cup stage at 20. I had to learn early on in my baseball career to calm the nerves and be in a good mindset to perform.”
Playing against older and more experienced competition also changed the way she trained. She learned quickly that confidence would have to be earned, not assumed.
“It definitely set the precedent, and I knew I just had to go to work and outwork every person there until I could match them,” Eynon said. “That work ethic from a young age has helped me later on in my career and has made the hunger to want to be the best even stronger.”
That work has helped Eynon build a game that does not fit into only one role. She has played shortstop, utility, pitcher and hitter, and she sees those parts of the game as connected. Pitching helps her understand what a pitcher may be thinking when she is in the box. Playing shortstop helps her understand timing, pickoffs and the movement of the game from the middle of the field.
“The space and freedom to move is so appealing to me about shortstop,” Eynon said. “I love chasing the athleticism and speed required to play it well and I love learning the technical side of infield which just add to my tool collection. You are involved in everything as a shortstop too which I love.”
Her game has been described as calm, but that calm is not accidental. It is something she has worked to build, especially as the level around her has continued to rise.
“Playing frantic baseball doesn’t work so learning to keep my heart rate low and to play smooth baseball has always been a priority,” Eynon said. “I have put a lot of work into my mental skills over the last 2-3 years to develop a sense of extreme internal confidence but an exterior that seems under control.”
When games tighten, Eynon leans on preparation. The work matters because it gives her something steady to return to when the moment starts moving quickly.
“Confidence that I have done the work and will get the job done no matter what,” Eynon said. “A saying I love is ‘reps remove doubt’ and I remind myself I have done the reps. Control the controllables and stay in the moment.”
That mindset helped her through one of the biggest recent stretches of her career. At the 2026 Australian Women’s Championship, Eynon earned MVP honors after impacting the game in multiple ways. The tournament also mattered because of what it meant for national team selection in Australia.
“It was an important tournament in terms of Australian selection as it is the only national tournament we have in Australia,” Eynon said. “Earning MVP was a reward for my individual success but the success of the team was ultimately the most important aspect.”
Representing Australia has become one of the defining parts of Eynon’s career. She has played on the international stage, including the Women’s Baseball World Cup, and the meaning of that jersey reaches well beyond the field.
“It’s about doing something bigger than yourself,” Eynon said. “We aren’t just representing ourselves, we are representing everyone back home, our family, our friends and everyone who has supported us on our journey. It was and always will be the biggest honour.”
International baseball has also changed the way she understands the game. Facing different styles of play, especially the contrast between Western baseball and the Asian style of baseball, has given her a broader view of how the sport can be played and taught. Training in Japan stood out because of the way players moved, trained and built athleticism.
“It’s cool to gain exposure to different training drills and exercises, learning new tools and learning the ways that other countries build athleticism and strength,” Eynon said. “This was something that was very evident in Japan. They train to move in a very different way than what we do in Australia. It’s also very interesting to learn what data and technology is used around the world to analyze different skillsets.”