Twelve-year-old Jaslene Ramirez of Santa Fe batting for Little League home run title in Seattle.

Girl power, buddy. Never doubt it.

When Santa Fe’s Jaslene Ramirez digs into the batter’s box at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park on Sunday, she’ll be out to prove something you should have realized yourself a long, long time ago: Girls, they can hit the snot out of the ball, too.

The 12-year-old who will enter St. Michael’s as a seventh grader in just a few weeks will be part of the T-Mobile West Regional Home Run Derby, which takes place after Sunday’s big-league game between the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners. It features the top 10 Little League power hitters in softball and baseball from west of the Mississippi, pairing them in a derby that will send the winner to the national finals at the Little League World Series next month.

Jaslene will represent Santa Fe on one side. The baseball derby will feature Santa Fe’s Darrell Carbajal and Albuquerque’s Maddox Gonzales on the other.

A sweet-swinging righty who used a 33-ounce wood bat to earn folk-hero status in the Santa Fe Little League this summer, Carbajal hit more than 30 dingers during his local derby run. Ramirez hit 23 out of Ron Shirley Alto Park during the softball derby, inflicting enough damage to get the attention of the T-Mobile big wigs who put the event together.

They flew the Carbajals and Ramirezes to Seattle on Saturday for an all-expenses-paid trip. Each family was chauffeured to a downtown hotel and given tickets to Sunday’s Mariners game.

As great as that sounds, Jaslene is just looking forward to seeing her photo splashed across the giant video screen in T-Mobile Park, hoping to channel the mojo she gets from one of her superstitions. Her walk-up song has traditionally been “Scooby Doo Pa Pa” by DJ Kass.

Every time she hears it, she said, good things usually happen.

“I changed it once and I didn’t hit, then everything happened,” Jaslene said.

That “everything happened” to be the pandemic, which shut down youth sports across New Mexico immediately after Ramirez tinkered with the softball gods in March 2020 and changed her walk-up to “Scrub the Ground” by Chocolate Puma & Tommie Sunshine. For more than a year, Ramirez had to live with the memory of struggling at the plate during a tournament with her new song.

Another superstition? Talking to her bat.

While the T-Mobile folks have graciously supplied a complimentary stick, Ramirez is happy to ride it out with the one her parents, Bianca and Jesus Ramirez, got for her a while back.

With the handle wrapped in white tape, Jaslene will stand outside the batter’s box a split second before digging in. She’ll stare at the bat as if the two have a secret kinship we’re not privy to, then she’ll ask it — nicely, she adds — if it has any hits in there for her.

It usually has, regardless of the walk-up song.

“I can’t say how proud the entire city is to have not just Jas, but Darrell going out there,” said Santa Fe Little League President Aaron Ortiz. “They’re both such great kids. It’s such a big accomplishment to send one player out there, but to have two from the same Little League is crazy. Hopefully people see this and maybe get inspired to start their own journey, you know?”

Jaslene’s journey started a few years ago when she spent the first couple of seasons playing baseball. She transitioned to softball at age 9, working with youth coach Maria Cedillo. It was under Cedillo’s tutelage that Jaslene learned more than the fundamentals of the game.

Cedillo taught her players about the value of an unshakable worth ethic, one that empowers girls to rise above the fray and accomplish goals that most believe are out of reach. She wants her girls to take their own expectations and raise them far beyond what some see as unattainable, then surpass them by working together.

As big as her broad-shouldered dad is, Jaslene said she got her power swing from Cedillo.

“I feel like it’s just a matter of confidence and bravery because it doesn’t matter who you take on, it doesn’t matter how big you are or who you take on, it just matters in your attitude,” Jaslene said. “You go out there and play hard no matter what.”

Listening to her daughter speak, Bianca said the daily grind of playing youth sports — Jaslene is also into volleyball and basketball, and plans to play all three at St. Michael’s — has molded a mindset that makes a trip to a big league stadium not nearly as intimidating as it should be.

“Jas has grown up so much and she’s learned that being a good athlete means being a good person and making good decisions,” Bianca Ramirez said. “It’s about working hard and not making excuses. Those 6 [a.m.] practices and the games in Ruidoso, Albuquerque or wherever, doesn’t matter. You show up and play.”

Jaslene’s parents grew up in Española. Since starting a family — first with Jaslene, followed by 8-year-old Elijah, then adding the family dog, Timmy — the couple has dedicated itself to empowering Jaslene with the beliefs Cedillo brings to the field every day.

A third baseman by choice, Jaslene is a power hitter by circumstance. She never really hit the long ball until just recently. Now that she’s gotten a taste of it, she likes it.

Regardless of how she does Sunday, one of the many things she’s learned is to relax, have fun and let sports take you places you never really dreamed of.

“I mean, we’re going to be in a big stadium hitting softballs,” she said. “That sounds like fun to me.”