The unpredictable movement of her pitches made it almost impossible to hit, until a severe injury suffered in a regular game shortened her promising career.
After that she switched to first base, to become a dangerous and productive hitter through the rest of her career, ranking among the top 10 AAGPBL players for five out of her six seasons.
In 1943, the Racine Belles, with Johnny Gottselig at the helm, won both the first half of the season and AAGPBL championship behind a strong effort by Nesbitt, who led the pitching staff with a 26–13 record for a .667 winning percentage (fifth-best of the league), including 308 innings of work in 47 appearances.
Irene Hickson, who shared the catching duties with Dorothy Maguire, was known as an opportune hitter with runners in scoring position during the late innings.
Most importantly, Hickson was a solid fielding catcher with a strong throwing arm, and had a reputation as a good handler of pitchers.
[1][4][10][11][12] The first AAGPBL Championship Series pitted first-half winner Racine against Kenosha Comets, second-half champ.
[1][4][6][10][11][12] In 1944, Nesbitt posted the team's only winning record, 23–17, with a career-high 106 strikeouts in 45 games, while the other pitchers of Racine suffered off years.
Incidentally, the relatively low batting averages in the early years reflect mainly the high quality of AAGPBL pitchers, rather than a lack of skills by the hitters.
After the injury, she had less command of her array of pitches, especially her hard knuckleball, and she was given the chance to play on a regular basis at first base.
Her most productive season came in 1948, when she paced the league with 24 doubles and posted career numbers in average (.292), runs (69), RBI (58), at-bats (399), hits (128) and games played (126), ranking between the top ten in these offensive categories.
For more than 20 years she drove a school bus in Putnam County, but she did not give up playing ball, joining in with local women's leagues.