{"id":91,"date":"2026-05-13T18:11:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=91"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:11:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:11:35","slug":"nc-girls-step-up-to-the-plate-in-special-little-league-baseball-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=91","title":{"rendered":"NC girls step up to the plate in special Little League baseball weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"summary\">AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/nation-world\/national\/article280707640.html\">Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When most baseball or softball players point to the beginning of their careers, they often describe the experience of tossing a ball with a parent, sibling or friend.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=89\">Some Canes fans pay $60 to park. How much was it during 2006 Stanley Cup run?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Joe Genovese remembers participating in the quintessential activity with his daughter, Alessia, during her younger years. A former baseball player from New York, he pitched to her in the family\u2019s Wake Forest driveway from the time she could stand and catch a ball.<\/p>\n<p>Alessia, 11, advanced to T-ball, the local recreation baseball and even joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.perfectgame.org\/PGBA\/Team\/default.aspx?orgid=83847&amp;orgteamid=253550&amp;team=958457&amp;Year=2026\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_blank\">Raleigh Redbirds<\/a>, a local boys travel team. She constantly wondered why she couldn\u2019t play the sport with other girls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said, \u2018Well, one day you will,\u2019\u201d Joe Genovese said. \u201cWe always talked about that. Now it\u2019s coming, and it\u2019s here. I think we\u2019re all proud. \u2026 Sometimes I have to pinch myself. It\u2019s just so cool to see that and see her love the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alessia recently joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carolinacomets.org\/\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_blank\">Carolina Comets<\/a>, an all-girls baseball organization in Huntersville, and became one of four North Carolina girls to earn a spot in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.littleleague.org\/legacy-series\/\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_blank\">Maria Pepe Little League Legacy Baseball Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The three-day tournament from June 5-7 provides 96 girls, ages 11 and 12, an opportunity to compete in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of the Little League Baseball World Series.<\/p>\n<p>Players from 30 states, Aruba, Brazil and Canada were selected. It is the third annual event, which honors Maria Pepe \u2014 who advocated for the inclusion of women and girls in baseball \u2014 and coincides with the first-ever Little League game played on June 6, 1939, and National Little League Week.<\/p>\n<p>Alessia joins Eleanor Austin (Asheville), Zella Carter (Winston-Salem) and Madelyn Martin (Charlotte) in the North Carolina contingent. Their families plan on meeting in Williamsport and spending time together. Carter was unavailable for an interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m excited to have the chance to play with girls and play hard,\u201d Alessia said. \u201cI always want to get better at either hitting or fielding, because there\u2019s never a \u2018best.\u2019 You can always get better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Playing with boys is fine, but the girls often wish there were more.<\/p>\n<p>Austin is one of two girls in her Little League division. Martin, 12, said there are \u201ca few\u201d girls on her team, while Alessia is the lone girl for the Redbirds.<\/p>\n<p>Even when the boys are nice, Alessia said being the only girl can get lonely. She\u2019s excited to be at the all-girls tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be able to have someone to talk to or friends on the team,\u201d she said. \u201cNow that I\u2019m playing with girls, it will definitely be way better and more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Martin and Austin, meanwhile, said the team feels different when there are more girls. The dugout is louder, the game is somewhat more relaxed and the camaraderie is stronger.<\/p>\n<p>Austin, 12, participated in the Maria Pepe tournament in 2024 and experienced the girls-only series. There\u2019s certainly still competition and the participants use the opportunity to improve, but Austin said the weekend provides more than athletic development.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=88\">Ransom deal reached with Canvas hackers who stole student and teacher data<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The young catcher looks forward to seeing her friends from last summer and making new ones. She wants to help young players the same way other girls did for her. In addition to the games, players stay in the dorms at the Little League complex and participate in various bonding activities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was nice, because I saw that it\u2019s not just me,\u201d Austin said. \u201cThere\u2019s a bunch of girls playing, and we\u2019re there to support each other. \u2026 Everyone\u2019s there growing. We\u2019re all one big team, but we still want to beat each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Parents of all three girls expressed pride in their daughters.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca Martin is thrilled with Madelyn\u2019s confidence, on the field, at the plate and in the dugout. Kirstin Austin admires Eleanor\u2019s courage to play with boys and participate in the 2025 Maria Pepe tournament. Joe and Melissa Genovese feel lucky to see Alessia\u2019s dedication to reach this point.<\/p>\n<p>The families plan on traveling with their children and hope to see them embrace the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy biggest thing is to let her soak in the experience; that they get to go play on the Little League fields,\u201d Rebecca Martin said. \u201cVery few kids, boys or girls, get the opportunity to actually go to Williamsport and play on those fields, and I just feel like this is a big moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Maria Pepe series and girls participation is <a href=\"https:\/\/19thnews.org\/2025\/09\/womens-professional-baseball-league\/\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_blank\">not a fluke<\/a> or a one-off. USA Baseball, Little League and Baseball for All have taken steps to grow the sport among girls and women, while <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/women-reclaiming-place-baseball-124033708.html\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_blank\">baseball viewership<\/a> is up.<\/p>\n<p>Women have their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/womens-pro-baseball-league-to-debut\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_blank\">own professional baseball league<\/a> for the first time in 70 years, as well. Four teams in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco will play in late summer, hosting a regular season, playoffs and all-star game.<\/p>\n<p>Martin, who plays softball and baseball, is excited to see the growth of baseball among girls, too. She says it\u2019s \u201creally great\u201d and wants to see more opportunities. Having opportunities in softball is great, having them in baseball, too, is even better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s important for that to happen, so more feel confident to play,\u201d Martin said, \u201cand so we have more teams and more players.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Until girls baseball is popular everywhere, however, the trio encouraged others to try baseball anyway. It could be a life-changing decision, and they\u2019re here to support anyone who wants to join North Carolina\u2019s up-and-coming sorority of girls baseball.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no limit to their success, and, frankly, who cares what anyone else thinks?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be hard at first because you think all the boys might be better than you, or they might make fun of you for playing on the team,\u201d Alessia said. \u201cIf you just ignore them and just keep playing, it\u2019s way better than listening to what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=86\">NC town ends Flock Safety cameras contract, siding with privacy rights<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary gray\">This story was originally published <span class=\"inline-block\">May 13, 2026 at 5:15 AM<span>.<\/span><\/span><!-- --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four North Carolina girls earned spots in the Maria Pepe Little League Legacy Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It is a three-day girls only event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NC girls step up to the plate in special Little League baseball weekend - Durham Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=91\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NC girls step up to the plate in special Little League baseball weekend - Durham Moving Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Four North Carolina girls earned spots in the Maria Pepe Little League Legacy Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. 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