Brown’s Olivia Pichardo made college baseball history this season. These Philly-area girls hope to follow in her footsteps.

A girl in pigtails and a Bryce Harper Phillies shirt dropped her bag off outside the batting cages and slipped on a baseball cap. She lifted the netting to join the group of girls already gathered on the turf at Center City’s Phield House, an indoor sports facility where her baseball team was holding practice.

The girls gathered there that Friday evening were there to play for Philly Girls Baseball.

PGB was started by Erin Nunes Cooper and became a nonprofit last year. Cooper was forced to switch from baseball to softball at age 10 but retained her love for the game. She started coaching her son’s baseball team and noticed a few girls playing against the boys.

“I would see girls on the other teams and they would often bat at the end of the order, and their coach would say, ‘Nice swing’, and it was a junky swing,” Cooper said. “I got very frustrated, watching these girls not being coached the same way as boys. So I started just having extra hitting practices with a handful of girls if I would see them, and it grew organically from there.”

Women have been playing baseball as long as men have, as far back as the mid-19th century. Over 100,000 girls play youth baseball today, but just over 1,000 continue through high school, according to Baseball for All.

In addition to the practices PGB holds throughout the year, it also sends teams to tournaments across the U.S. in the summer. One highlight is Baseball For All Nationals, which drew almost 450 girls from all over North America last year. Its eighth iteration is set to be held in Kentucky this July.

“You get to meet new girls, and then keep those relationships. My mom is always saying, ‘Oh, this girl seems really nice, get her phone number, stay in touch.’ And by this point, I know a whole lot of girls … girls from across the country,” said Sara Brennan, 12.

In a break during practice, the girls crowd together in the lobby of Phield House, discussing their favorite things about baseball and debating their favorite MLB players. Some of the PGB players also are on teams with boys, but they come together at these practices to get more reps and for the chance to play with other girls.

“My goal is to keep playing baseball, and not let boys say, ‘Oh, you can’t play baseball. Go play softball with some girls and throw the ball underhand,’” said Noemi Benedetto, 10.

“I want to play MLB baseball,” Sara said. “I want to be a first baseman for the Phillies. I also want to be the founder of a women’s league, a women’s professional league, and play and then coach for the U.S. national team.”

Brown University is almost 300 miles away from Philadelphia. But the Brown baseball team, especially freshman utility player Olivia Pichardo, has passionate fans among PGB.

In March, Pichardo made history when she came in to pinch hit for Brown in the bottom of the ninth inning in a game against Bryant. It was over quickly — a first-pitch groundout on a hard-hit ball to the first baseman — but it was history nonetheless. By stepping into the batter’s box that day, Pichardo became the first female baseball player to appear in an NCAA Division I game. Six women were on NCAA baseball rosters across the country for the 2023 season. Pichardo is the only woman in Division I.

“I really liked this environment of Division I baseball, and the competitiveness of it, the energy that’s in the dugout every single game,” Pichardo said. “I only got one at-bat this season, but I mean, that was definitely a special moment for me. I can’t wait for the next few years.”

Pichardo, originally from Queens, N.Y., walked on to the Brown roster in November.

She’s not local to Philly. But to the girls playing at Phield House that Friday evening, Pichardo represents the possibility of a future in their sport. Just her name listed on Brown’s roster signals that dreams of playing baseball beyond high school could become realities.

And one day, she might play college baseball in Philadelphia — at Ivy League rival Penn’s Meiklejohn Stadium. This year, the Quakers met her team in Rhode Island and swept the mid-April series.

» READ MORE: Penn to play top seed Auburn in NCAA baseball regional on Friday

Pichardo spent the summer before her freshman year competing for the U.S. women’s national baseball team. Her goal is to represent the U.S. at a Women’s Baseball World Cup, which next will be held in 2024.

“All the girls who are my age who played baseball, we all grew up in our own respective neighborhoods, not really knowing that there were other girls who were just like us,” Pichardo said. “To learn that other girls are also playing, it’s really just a greater encouragement, and to be able to meet some of them every now and then, and to play with each other, is a really cool experience. Because we all have that one shared experience that really just binds us together.”

Next to Pichardo in the U.S. outfield for a summer series against Team Canada was her idol, Kelsie Whitmore. In 2022, Whitmore became the first woman to start a game in the Atlantic League.

Even Whitmore, whose accomplishments in the Atlantic League have made her one of the faces of women’s baseball, never made a Division I baseball roster. She played softball at Cal State Fullerton while training with the Titans’ baseball team whenever she could.

Pichardo’s achievement comes as more and more women have reached positions of prominence in baseball in the last decade in front offices and on the field. The Phillies hired their first female field coach, Sarah Edwards, in March.

And Pichardo is walking in the footsteps of a certain former baseball player from Philly who once helped shine a national spotlight on girls and women in baseball: Mo’ne Davis.

This summer will mark nine years since Davis captured the country’s attention with her fastball at the 2014 Little League World Series. After pitching a shutout for the Taney Dragons, becoming the first girl to do so at the LLWS, Davis became an overnight sensation. A Sports Illustrated cover and a congratulatory tweet from Michelle Obama later, Davis was a national symbol of girls’ baseball.

After returning from Williamsport, Davis played basketball and baseball throughout high school. She played for the Anderson Monarchs, with the team and the coach who had discovered her all those years ago.

The Anderson Monarchs are a coed youth development organization based in South Philadelphia, focused on providing athletic opportunities for underserved local youth. The Monarchs were founded by Steve Bandura in 1995. It was Bandura who spotted a 7-year-old Davis throwing perfect spirals on a football field one fall and encouraged her to try baseball.

“My personal thought is that it shouldn’t even be softball. Girls should play baseball, just like they do basketball and soccer,” Bandura said. “I mean, it doesn’t really make sense that the girls’ hands are smaller, so you give them a ball that’s twice as big. That never made sense to me. And it’s not soft. It’s not like it’s safer.”

However, the main goal of the Monarchs is for the members of its program to get a college education. Since most of the college athletic opportunities and scholarships for girls today lie in softball rather than baseball, that often means encouraging them to focus on softball. Davis didn’t pursue baseball in college, electing to play DI softball for Hampton University.

“I miss the Monarchs just because we’ve been playing since we were 7, so I miss that part of it,” Davis said. “If I ever [have] the urge to go pitch, if I’m down in Philly, I’ll just let Coach Steve know, and just go down there and just throw a couple of balls around.”

» READ MORE: Mo’ne Davis, once a child prodigy herself, is hoping to inspire the next generation

The Monarchs’ model is working — in addition to Davis, nine members of the 2019 and 2020 graduating Monarchs classes went on to play Division I baseball, and three others played in Division III.

“College is the main goal for our program, you graduate from college,” Bandura said. “And that’s what we try to put the kids in the best position, in order to do that, and use their sports ability to get into the best academic situation they can.”

Nine years on, many kids today are too young to remember watching the 2014 LLWS. But Davis’ stardom has endured. She still gets letters, is still asked for photos and autographs. Sara, who was 3 when Davis pitched her shutout, wore a USA Baseball hat to PGB practice with Davis’ signature visible on the front.Taylor Griggs, a member of PGB and the Monarchs, has met Davis multiple times and even has her phone number.

“I think one of the more meaningful impacts now is the parents who no longer think it’s completely out of the realm of possibility because they saw what [Davis] did,” Cooper said. “They saw that on the national stage, so if their daughter is asking for baseball, or their daughter’s coming to [PGB] events, they’re much more accepting that this is a real possibility.”

Davis, who graduated from Hampton this May with a degree in journalism, still comes back to help out with the Monarchs and coach younger players. Davis also had the opportunity to coach young girls at the MLB Trailblazer Series in Vero Beach, Fla., this past April, alongside U.S. national team members including Whitmore.

“Women’s baseball should be a thing, and should be in college because of how many girls are playing baseball and how many girls are going to keep playing baseball,” Davis said. “You shouldn’t feel obligated to switch over to softball ... there’s so many girls around this country who are still playing baseball.”

One of those girls is right here in Philly: Davis’ fellow Anderson Monarch, 16-year-old Sofia Meer. Meer started playing baseball when she was 4, following in the footsteps of her older brother, Luke. The siblings now are teammates on Central High School’s varsity baseball team, where Sofia is the only girl.

In the summers, Meer plays club baseball with Bandura’s team, the Philadelphia Stars. She considers Davis a role model, and the two have met a few times. In 2018, Meer was one of 96 girls between the ages of 10-13 selected to play for the MLB Trailblazers series, the same program Davis would help coach five years later. More recently, Meer attended the MLB Elite Development Invitational, a five-day camp for high-level female baseball players.

“All of them are so positive there, and we’re all just working to get better together,” Meer said. “And it’s something that you really never get to do because normally at home, we’re all playing with boys. So it’s really fun to see that, and see how many other girls are out there working and trying to get better.”

Next to Davis, Meer’s biggest idol is the Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto — Meer is a catcher, too, and wears Realmuto’s No. 10.

“My teammates are awesome, for all my teams — my club team at the Monarchs, and then at school,” Meer said. They always welcome with open arms, and same for the coaches. But sometimes when we play opponents, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, is that a girl?’ ... When they see you, they’re just surprised. It’s kind of cool. It’s a sneak attack, almost.”

As a sophomore, Meer splits her time between Central High’s JV and varsity baseball teams. While there’s one other girl who plays alongside her on JV, Meer currently is the only girl playing varsity baseball in the Philadelphia Public League. Central beat Franklin Towne Charter, 11-0, in the league championship game.

Though she’s mostly found behind the plate, Meer made her varsity pitching debut for Central High in a May 3 game against Science Leadership Academy. She pitched a shutout inning in relief to ice the Lancers’ win.

Meer’s short-term goal is to crack the varsity starting lineup, but Pichardo’s accomplishment also represents something to work toward.

“I mean, [Brown is] a Division I school,” she said. “All of her stats are something you want to strive for, like her speed. She’s fast. And you know, she’s just a perfect role model ... she’s where a lot of girls who play baseball want to be.”

Three weeks ago, Pichardo was nearby in New Jersey with her team to wrap up Brown’s final series of the season against Princeton.

It was a weekend full of local connections — Scott Bandura, Steve’s son, and an Anderson Monarchs alumnus, was in the dugout opposite Pichardo. Once Davis’ catcher at the LLWS, he now plays right field and bats cleanup for Princeton.

» READ MORE: Why one of college baseball’s top hitters plays with Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 tattooed on his arm

Pichardo didn’t see time on the field that weekend. But she had fans there, happy just to see her in the Brown uniform. In between games of Saturday’s doubleheader, a PGB player approached Pichardo and asked her to sign a baseball.

Pichardo didn’t have female baseball players to look up to until her sophomore year of high school, when she first heard about Whitmore. To the girls who can look up to her now, she has one piece of advice.

“Just keep playing the sport that you want to play. Stop playing [only] because you want to stop playing, not because other people tell you to stop playing,” Pichardo said. “Nothing is going to come for free. You’re not going to get any pity votes. So you really have to work hard in the weight room, work hard in the field, work hard in the classroom. And, if you do that, then you just got to have the grit.”