After receiving nearly 200 applications, the initial selection of 96 players to participate in the 2026 Maria Pepe Little League Baseball® Legacy Series, A Girls with Game® Experience, has officially been announced. This year’s participating class of Girls with Game feature players from 30 states, as well as Aruba, Brazil, and Canada, with Aruba and Brazil being represented for the first time in the event’s three-year history.
Meet the initial selection of 96 players, including the city and state/country they are coming from, below (subject to change):
| Taiyo Adams (Wahiawa, Hawaii) | Finley German (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) | Melia Milton (Vancouver, Canada) |
| Coral Arana (Kensington, Md.) | Mia Golub (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.) | Alexys Motley (Victorville, Calif.) |
| Chloe Armata (Ramsay, Mich.) | Allison Gonzalez (Marietta, Ga.) | Kyla Murray (Liberty Hill, Texas) |
| Eleanor Austin (Asheville, N.C.) | Symone Goodman (Lake Helen, Fla.) | Cecelia Navarro (Lemon Grove, Calif.) |
| Brooklyn Austin (Edmonton, Canada) | Giselle Guadalupe (Hayward, Calif.) | Jocelyn Ness (Valley City, N.D.) |
| Violet Badeau (Upland, Calif.) | Harper Hansen (St. Paul, Minn.) | Charleigh Nowakowski (Spotsylvania, Va.) |
| Morgan Beasley (North Andover, Mass.) | Ava Harlan (Holly Springs, Ga.) | Kayla Nye (Tucson, Ariz.) |
| Zoe Belzile (Terrebonne, Canada) | Jade Hendershot (Skokie, Ill.) | Amelia Piekanski (Chesterfield, Va.) |
| Maeve Boedigheimer (Barnegat, N.J.) | Abigail Hernandez (Eagle Lake, Texas) | Giuliana Robinson (Delmar, N.Y.) |
| Mira Bromberg (Carbondale, Colo.) | Barbara Hernandez (Juneau, Alaska) | Ariana Rodriguez (Manahawkin, N.J.) |
| Katia Brumm (Brooklyn, N.Y.) | Hazel Hollett (Spruce Grove, Canada) | Harper Schatz (Newtown, Pa.) |
| Victoria Burns (Houston, Texas) | Ryan Hollywood (San Jose, Calif.) | Aisley Scopaz (Scarborough, Maine) |
| Cora Campbell (Everett, Wash.) | Macie Hood (Panama City, Fla.) | Kensington Seshadri (Secaucus, N.J.) |
| Elizabeth Carmichael (Freehold, N.J.) | Emerson Howlett (Freehold, N.J.) | Clara Simpkins (Salisbury, Md.) |
| Juliana Carroll-Medeiros (Pawtucket, R.I.) | Ava Ives (Newport, N.Y.) | Olivia Slater (Phoenix, Ariz.) |
| Zella Carter (Winston Salem, N.C.) | McKenzie Jackson (Junction City, Kan.) | Tegan Smith (Rumford, R.I.) |
| Maite Castillo (Tampa, Fla.) | Annalise Johnson (Edmonton, Canada) | Kinsley St. Clair (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) |
| Kelsey Cavallari (Buffalo, N.Y.) | Emerson Kawachi (San Diego, Calif.) | Olive Stefanson (Vancouver, Canada) |
| Lillyana Chapa (Canyon Lake, Texas) | Zayleigh Ketterman (Petersburg, W.V.) | Sylvia Stonoha (Lebanon, Conn.) |
| Addison Chavez (Casa Grande, Ariz.) | Stella Knopke (Gig Harbor, Wash.) | Lily Strauss (Houston, Texas) |
| Aliana Chavez (Casa Grande, Ariz.) | Samantha Kohl (Delmar, Md.) | Eleanor Thiffault (L’Epiphanie, Canada) |
| Rebecca Cohn (Tenafly, N.J.) | Lilah Kuehn (Loveland, Ohio) | Olivia Tovar (Alsip, Ill.) |
| Stella Cosentini (Ocean Springs, Miss.) | Anushree Lagu (Essex Junction, Vt.) | Isabelle Trice (Gaithersburg, Md.) |
| Azalea Cruz (Houston, Texas) | Miah Leach (Wabash, Ind.) | Arianna Valenzuela (Manteca, Calif.) |
| Morgan Culhane (Hoboken, N.J.) | Camille Linscheid (Seattle, Wash.) | Minellie Velez (Bridgeport, Conn.) |
| Lilah Dillard (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) | Genevieve Lopez (Buena Park, Calif.) | Sadie Warren (Edmonton, Canada) |
| Erin Douglas (Costa Mesa, Calif.) | Ellie Louis (Rye, N.Y.) | Marielle Watkins (Media, Pa.) |
| Gabriella Farias (New York, N.Y.) | Noa Louison-Belsky (New York, N.Y.) | Daynah Wederfoor (Oranjestad, Aruba) |
| Trinity Gallagher (North Vancouver, Canada) | Madelyn Martin (Charlotte, N.C.) | Willow Wong (Irvington, N.Y.) |
| Madison Garcia (Bay City, Texas) | Carsynn Meyer (Henderson, Nev.) | Paisley Wren (Winter Haven, Fla.) |
| Elizabeth Garcia (Sarasota, Fla.) | Kalynn Mills (Jonesboro, Ga.) | Lara Yamashiro (Santana De Parnaiba, Brazil) |
| Alessia Genovese (Wake Forest, N.C.) | Gianna Milone (Catskill, N.Y.) | Mikaela Zapata (Chicago, Ill.) |
Teams will play a minimum of three games over the course of the weekend, with games being held in both Howard J. Lamade and Volunteer Stadiums.
Each of the 96 selected players will be provided with housing accommodations in the dorms at the Dr. Creighton J. Hale International Grove, with chaperones provided by Little League® International. As part of the overall experience, participants will also have access to other activities on the complex throughout the weekend and will be provided with meals during their stay at the event.
With the event scheduled for the anniversary of the first-ever Little League game played on June 6, 1939, the event will also once again lead into the start of National Little League Week, which will be celebrated by communities across the United States from June 8-14, 2026.
The event is named in honor of Maria Pepe, an inspiration to hundreds of thousands of females across generations, who was enshrined in the Little League Hall of Excellence during the inaugural event in 2024. During her own childhood, Pepe helped spearhead a movement in the 1970s that would lead to girls having the opportunity to participate in the Little League program, changing the game forever and opening doors to provide opportunities that had never been available before. A native of Hoboken, New Jersey, where her Little League journey first began, Maria Pepe’s name is inscribed on the community’s batting cages, cementing her name in history as she remains committed to inspiring girls all around the world to get involved with sports.
Thanks to the perseverance that Pepe showed over the past 50+ years, girls from all around the world continue to shine on their own community baseball fields each year, which has resulted in a total of 24 individuals who have gone on to compete at the highest stage in the Little League Baseball World Series, including in each of the last six events. Inspired by her efforts, the Maria Pepe Legacy Series is one of the many examples of Little League’s continued strategic efforts to encourage and empower the girls and women within its program, with an ultimate goal of providing equal participation opportunities for girls by 2032.
To learn more about the Maria Pepe Legacy Series, including a recap of the 2025 event, visit LittleLeague.org/LegacySeries.