Jessica Mendoza joins 'Sunday Night Baseball' full-time

Jessica Mendoza will stay permanently on ''Sunday Night Baseball'' in a groundbreaking assignment for a woman calling men's sports.

ESPN is announcing Wednesday that the retired softball star will work the games this season alongside another new analyst, Aaron Boone, in place of Curt Schilling and John Kruk.

Schilling moves to Monday night, while Kruk returns to ''Baseball Tonight.'' Dan Shulman remains the play-by-play announcer.

The 35-year-old Mendoza had called just one MLB game in the booth six days earlier when she took over for the suspended Schilling on Aug. 30. Her performance earned rave reviews, and she stayed on Sunday nights for the rest of the season. Mendoza became the first female analyst to call a nationally televised MLB playoff game when she worked the AL wild-card matchup.