JoAnna Garcia Swisher to appear on Fox's Pitch

Fox baseball drama Pitch is deepening its bench with the addition of an actress who is familiar with the diamond.

JoAnna Garcia Swisher — the Once Upon a Time vet who is married to MLB player Nick Swisher — has joined the cast of the show about the first female professional pitcher, EW has learned. In a recurring role, Swisher will play Rachel Patric, a whipsmart, tenacious newscaster who also happens to be the ex-wife of Mike Lawson (Mark-Paul Gosselaar). She has moved past her relationship with Mike quickly, and is now engaged to someone else, a fact that does not please Mike.

Swisher — whose recent TV credits include The Astronaut Wives Club and The Mindy Project — will make her first appearance in the show’s second episode, and will be seen in at least two episodes.

Several actors who appeared in the pilot will also play recurring roles in the series, including Bob Balaban (Frank Reid, the show’s blunt, competitive owner of the San Diego Padres), Chasity Dotson (Janet Baker, warm mother of Ginny, played by Kylie Bunbury), Ryan Dorsey (Tommy Miller, the very unhappy pitcher displaced by Ginny’s promotion to the big leagues), Jack McGee (Buck, the team’s venerable pitching coach), and Michael Beach (Bill Baker, Ginny’s hard-driving dad who pushed her hard to achieve her — or is that his? — big-league dreams).

Production on the series began on Monday, and the first Pitch will be thrown Sept. 22 on Fox.