Little League Baseball will honor 50 years of girls in the sport with a series in Williamsport, Pa.

When 12-year-old Maria Pepe tried to join her local baseball team in Hoboken, N.J., in 1972, Little League forced her to quit.

The organization had barred girls from competing on its teams since 1950 and threatened to revoke Hoboken’s charter if it allowed Pepe to play. But she didn’t give up. The National Organization of Women filed a lawsuit on her behalf, and the New Jersey Superior Court ruled that girls must be allowed to try out for Little League teams in the state. Other lawsuits soon followed across the country, and Little League Baseball revised its rules to permit girls nationwide in 1974.

While Pepe’s victory came after she had already aged out of her team, it would pave the way for future girls’ successes in baseball — including Philadelphia’s own Mo’ne Davis in 2014. And this weekend, Little League is holding a first-of-its-kind Maria Pepe Legacy Series in South Williamsport, Pa., inviting girls from across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico for three days of baseball at the Little League World Series complex.

“The only way to do it would be to be in honor of Maria Pepe, who was the little girl who was the catalyst for the program opening up to girls,” said Nina Johnson-Pitt, Little League’s senior strategy executive.

The series marks a hand extended by the very organization that, just over 50 years ago, took legal action to prevent girls from playing the game.

“It will be a new part of women and girls’ baseball history,” said Erin Nunes Cooper, head coach and founder of Philly Girls Baseball. “In my mind, I think it’s a huge gesture and symbol from Little League that girls are more welcome in baseball.”

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Philly Girls Baseball will be well-represented in Williamsport, with nine local players selected to make the trip and Cooper attending as a coach. Little League placed an emphasis on finding female coaches and umpires to work with the 96 girls, who will be divided into eight teams after an evaluation clinic on Friday. Malaika Underwood, a coach and former player on the U.S. women’s national baseball team, is another coach at the event.

Pepe herself will be on hand as well and will hold a discussion with the participants about her story and their own experiences.

“She actually knows many of the girls who will be participating because she is active in the girls’ baseball space,” Johnson-Pitt said.

Zoe Perkins, 11, will be one local representative at the event this weekend. In addition to Philly Girls Baseball, Perkins plays for the Philadelphia Dragons, which is Davis’ former Little League team.

Perkins followed her older brother’s footsteps into baseball, and it has taken her as far as Hawaii for other girls’ tournaments put on by the nonprofit Baseball For All. But while things have improved a lot for girls in baseball since 1974, the expectation that girls should play softball persists.

“If I’m dressed in a uniform or I have any equipment out, and even if I’ve told people this, they normally just assume I play softball,” Zoe said.

The tournaments that Zoe and her teammates attend — regardless of whether they’re in Hawaii or Williamsport — allow them to meet other girls just like them from all over North America. At one event, Zoe had the chance to play under the tutelage of Kelsie Whitmore, a professional baseball player for the Oakland Ballers and member of the U.S. women’s national team.

“We only travel a few times a year, but it’s all over the place. So you get to meet people from all over,” said Nicole Perkins, Zoe’s mother. “They all come in with a similar experience. They love baseball. They might be the only girl; they’re constantly having people assume they play softball. They’re showing the boys what girls can do.”

» READ MORE: Ten years after taking the world by storm, Mo’ne Davis wants to bring pro women’s sports to her hometown

The Maria Pepe Legacy Series was set up as part of Little League’s 50th anniversary celebration of girls being permitted to play for the organization. It also happens to be the 10th anniversary of Davis capturing the nation’s attention with the Taney Dragons.

Including Davis, 22 girls have played in the Little League World Series on coed teams. But there is still a gap in Little League for girls-only baseball, which this series is aiming to fill.

More than 200 girls applied for the event, and the 96 participants were selected based on a holistic process that prioritized inclusiveness and representation while also considering baseball ability.

“We wanted to have Little League players that were participating,” Johnson-Pitt said. “We also look at this as an opportunity to allow players that haven’t had a Little League experience to see what it’s like to come to Williamsport and experience the program. And then hopefully they’ll go back, and if they’re not playing Little League, look for a league to join.”

When the anniversary ends, it doesn’t mean the series will. Johnson-Pitt said Little League will continue to look for opportunities to elevate women and girls in baseball.

“We’re calling it the inaugural because we do hope that it’s something that we can continue to do and expand on,” she said. “I don’t know exactly what that looks like — maybe we’ll eventually see more girls’ baseball-specific events happen at regional centers or whether local leagues can arrange for special games in that regard. But this isn’t a one-and-done.”