I don’t normally do sports stories, but this one’s cool: (1) a little girl with a problem gets to live a better life and (2) it’s UNLV that made it happen:

5-year-old girl throws out Orioles’ first pitch with 3D-printed prosthetic hand

At the Baltimore Orioles game on Monday, the work of UNLV and its engineering students will be center stage as 5-year-old Hailey Dawson will throw out the first pitch using the Flexy-Hand 2, which is a 3D-printed prosthetic device created by the UNLV engineering department.

“[Hailey’s] excited because this is her wish. I think the best part for her is she gets to meet Manny Machado,” said Hailey’s mom, Yong Dawson.

Hailey was born with Poland Syndrome, a rare congenital disease that causes underdevelopment in the pectoral muscle and oftentimes also affects fingers on one side of the body. In Hailey’s case, her right pectoral muscle is completely flat and her right hand is deformed in a way that makes it near impossible for her to grip things, such as a baseball. Fortunately she isn’t in much pain at all, according to her mom.

She’s already thrown out a first pitch for the Rebels…looks like she’s moving up. :-)