SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT — A service organization outing for fathers and sons to a Baltimore Orioles game didn’t stop Davie Jane Gilmour from joining her dad at the ballpark when she was a little girl.

Decades later, Gilmour is setting a precedent for Little League baseball, too.

Nearly 40 years after girls were allowed to officially play Little League, Gilmour is the first woman to lead the Board of Directors for the youth sports organization. It’s the highest-profile leadership position held by a woman at Little League — which is most known for its World Series played primarily by boys ages 11-13.

“It’s just one of those things of circumstances,” said Gilmour, 58, the president of the Pennsylvania College of Technology, in Williamsport. “When I look around, I’m often the first, or one of the first women on a board, because of there are still (smaller) proportions of women in leadership communities and organizations.”

One of Gilmour’s first official, public responsibilities connected to the World Series since becoming chair in November was taking part in the draw last week that set up the opening-game matchups when the tournament begins in two months.

Gilmour never played Little League growing up outside Harrisburg, though she professed to being a devout baseball fan dating back to those trips to see the Orioles with her father. The local Lions Club then had a “Take Your Son to the Baseball Game” outing.

“It was one of the first times that my father, who is a big influence on me, made a big statement,” Gilmour recalled before the Little League event Thursday. Her father “just nonchalantly said `we’re going to the baseball game.’ We got on the bus, I was the only girl and it was OK.

“I’ll never forget. We sat on the third-base line,” she said. “It was a great day.”