'Hawk Tuah' girl Hailey Welch defends herself from backlash after controversial first pitch for Mets: "I went to spread awareness"

The viral sensation "Hawk Tuah Girl," whose original name is Hailey Welch, threw the ceremonial first pitch ahead of the series finale between the Mets and the Athletics in Citi Field on Thursday afternoon. She received a wide array of criticism and backlash from the social media community for throwing the inaugural pitch.

Responding to all the backlash she received, Welch explained on her X account why she was at Citi Field to throw the ceremonial pitch on Thursday.

In her post, Welch wrote:

"So I guess some of the baseball community wasn’t too happy to see me yesterday. The main reason I went to the game was to spread awareness and donate to America’s vet dogs which pairs dogs with war veterans for a forever home. Join me in donating to this amazing charity. I miss ya already Buddy."

Welch clapped back at the critics, emphasizing the good cause for which she was present inside Citi Field. America's Vetdogs, the not-for-profit organization that Welch was promoting, has helped many veterans over the years, and its service accomplishments were very well explained to the fans and the players from both camps before the start of the clash.

The three-game series was split 1-1 ahead of Thursday's game. The Mets started the series finale well, rushing to a 5-0 lead in three innings. But the Athletics fought back, scoring seven runs in the next three innings in response to the Mets' one run, which took the score to 7-6 in favor of the A's by the end of the sixth inning.

Neither team scored in the last three innings, and the series finale ended in favor of Oakland, giving them a series victory. The Mets hoped to bounce back from this series loss as they hosted the Miami Marlins in the MLB next.

The Mets have won the first two games and with that the series against the Marlins

The New York Mets have won the first two games of the three-game series against the Miami Marlins. They won Game 1 7-3 on Friday and also came on top in Game 2 after a pitching masterclass by starting Luis Severino who pitched a complete shutout game at Citi Field on Saturday.

Severino pitched nine scoreless innings and struck out eight. With the win, the Mets also completed a series win against the Marlins, with the final game of the series scheduled to be played on Sunday. The first pitch will be at 12:05 p.m. EST in Queens, New York City.