Girl uses robotic hand to throw baseball pitch

Hailey Dawson was born with a rare congenital disease called Poland Syndrome that prevented development of her right hand, leaving her with just a thumb and a pinky.

But thanks to the ingenuity of engineering experts from Las Vegas' University of Nevada, the five-year-old has been given a new lease on life with the development of a robotics hand, which she recently used to deliver the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game.

In a truly heart-warming moment, Hailey pitched to her favourite player – Baltimore Orioles star Manny Machado – drawing rousing applause from the thousands of fans at the game to cheer on their heroes.

The magic moment came after months of work from engineers at UNLV following a letter and plea for help from her mother, Yong Dawson.

Called the Robohand, the plastic prosthetic was made with a 3D printer and cobbled together with wires, nuts and bolts and slips straight over the top of Hailey's hand.

And while there are around 200 people around the world using the Robohand, Hailey's was made with her favourite baseball team in mind – complete with the Orioles' orange colour and team logo.

To operate the device, Hailey moves the muscles in her wrist to move the hand and contract the robotic fingers.

And as she proved with her pitch, the youngster showed it won't take long to master the hand, throwing the ball straight to Machado with one bounce.

Talk about an inspirational day at the ball park.