My dd's college team did not use masks on the batting helmets (they were to cool) until a player bunted a ball into her nose breaking it during a practice, nasty event. The coach was then asked by 9 of the players to install a face mask on their batting helmets. Problem solved. The player with the broken nose lost about 2 weeks of the colligate season until her breathing returned to normal. An unnecessary injury that not only hurt the player but hurt the team during the heart of the season.
A college coach that will not recruit a player because she wears and face mask is an idiot.
Please have him/her go out and stand 35' away from a batter say, Crystal Bustos, while perched on one leg, off balanced as she hits balls 250' on a rope back up through the box. The coach might do it if they can hide behind a screen , but not with the bats these girls swing, the strength they swing with and the techniques they use.
The ball is on a player to fast to react. If a pitcher throws 30 games and faces 600 batters with an average of 5 pitches each she will throw some 3,000 pitches. If she makes a mistake and someone connects only 1%; there will be 30 pitches/hits coming back through the box if she makes 29 plays and misses only one. (An average way-better than any NHL goalie) She will spend the next significant portion of her life in hospitals and rehab. If she is wearing a $40 piece of equipment she will shake off the experience and go back to work without missing a game, a season or her vision.
I guess that my younger dd won't be attending that school.