SARASOTA, Fla. -- Want to see the true meaning of "playing ball like a girl"?

At Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota last weekend under the banner of American Girls Baseball, top female talent from around the world showcased their skills at the spring home of the Baltimore Orioles for a four-day event titled the All-American Women's Baseball Classic.

The president of AGB, Sue Zipay, knows all too well the plight of a woman trying to make a name for herself in the baseball realm. Zipay, 88, was a member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League formed during World War II as a pitcher and utility infielder/outfielder with the Rockford Peaches. The league was later documented and celebrated in the blockbuster film “A League of Their Own.”

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The event was a labor of love more than two years in the making, and it started when Zipay discovered a young girl in Venice, Fla., who was upset she was aging out of Little League and would only have the option of playing softball.

"I thought, 'It's been 67 years since our league ended, and here she is not able to have a choice between baseball and softball.' There's something wrong with that picture," Zipay said. "We have all these other professional women's sports, what happened to baseball?"

Zipay said the girls want exactly what the title of the popular 1992 film on the AAGPBL is -- a league of their own.

"We want our own league," Zipay said. "We want women playing with and against other women. Everyone thinks baseball is for men, and softball is for women. Who ever came up with that? The AGB was created to promote women and women's baseball"

The movement is growing. A large part of Major League Baseball’s youth programming is geared toward girls baseball, including the Trailblazer Series, a tournament for girls ages 11-13 held every April, as well as the GRIT ID tour and Girls Baseball Breakthrough Series. Also, Baseball For All founder Justine Siegal hosts several girls baseball events, with attendance growing each year.

Interest in the women’s game was prevalent at Zipay’s event in Sarasota; of the 60 players at the tournament, nine are members of the U.S. Women's National Team.

The tournament was broken down into four squads, representing the four original teams that existed in the AAGPBL: the Peaches, South Bend Blue Sox, Racine Belles and Kenosha Comets.

Catcher Anna Kimbrell, a member of the WNT since 2008 and Rockford Peach for a few days, said taking part in the classic is an experience female players don't get too often.

"We only have a few tournaments a year that we get to play," Kimbrell said, adding she plays in a men's league at home because there's no other alternative. "Just being able to have people from all over the map play high-level baseball has been great.

"I think it'd be awesome if we could have a league or something going where we could all play all the time. The word is out that women do play baseball. Still to this day, we're fighting that battle that girls and women do play baseball. I think this event will help us in the long run."

Zipay, looking out at a diamond full of women's baseball players all sporting uniforms she either wore or played against decades ago, became emotional.

"It's great to see," Zipay said with tears in her eyes. "And I'm happy for the girls. They're excited and they've never had something like this. We want this to be a jumpstart and want to pass the torch to the new generation."

A member of the new generation and backstop for the Blue Sox is Alexia Jorge form New Jersey. Jorge, 18, is a WNT member and plays collegiate baseball for St. Elizabeth.

"It's amazing to be here with amazing women on and off the field, who are great human beings as well as ballplayers. There's nothing like it or to compare it to," Jorge said. "Growing up, I never had a role model in women's baseball. I thought I was the only girl playing baseball to exist. As I'm sure many of the girls here thought, too.”

And if there was ever to be a pro league formed for women?

"I would die," Jorge joked. "It would be something I would never, ever take for granted. I think this event will help grow the sport for women."

Zipay's vision for the AGB started with the support of local counties in Florida. There is no shortage of Spring Training facilities in the area, and residents looking to catch an affordable ballgame during the traditional offseason would have a product to take in. She envisions four teams to start, with both U.S. and international players coming in to play ball.

"Why can't we do it?" Zipay said. "These young girls coming up are so talented, but they need a place to go when they get out of school. Some are allowed to play high school baseball, but some still can't. If there's a pro league, they have something to look forward to."

Zipay, a Massachusetts native, threw in her driveway for an AAGPBL representative that lived locally to get her foot in the door. Two weeks later, she got a call with a contract offer and took a train from Boston to South Bend Ind. When the AAGPBL was disbanded, it was a tough time for the women who took part to no longer be able to play.

"All of us will tell you it was very sad," Zipay said. "It was such a memorable time of my life. When I hear the songs we used to sing, it makes everything come back."

Day one of the tournament was full of excitement for fans, as the Peaches and Blue Sox battled to extra innings, with Rockford coming out on top 6-5. In the second game, the bats were hot as the Comets took down the Belles 12-11.

"Come out and give us a chance," said Kimbrell, who laced an RBI single in extra innings. "If it's not your thing, that's fine. Just come and experience it and know girls and women play baseball, and we're right there with the rest of them."

Kimbrell’s teammate for the classic and on the WNT, Meggie Meidlinger, was the first female pitcher in Virginia to throw a perfect game while at Dominion High School. She was part of the team to capture the gold medal at the 2006 Women's Baseball World Cup.

Meidlinger views forming a pro women’s league as a next logical step.

"At the end of the day that's what we all want, right? A league of our own,” Meidlinger said. “To play with other women. We have four solid teams with a high caliber of play. We have a great representation of what a league could be right here this weekend. Come watch us play. Watch how we rake, watch how we pitch, watch how we play the game.”