Independent league baseball always existed in a separate universe, un-tethered from affiliated baseball. But that's starting to change in some important ways.

Today, MLB teams pluck indy players for cheap and assign them to minor league teams to round things out or maybe create an opportunity. Scouts are assigned specifically to indy league teams, expanding its importance. In late July that importance grew in a significant way as history was made.

Stacy Piagno become the first pitcher to win a game since World War II, courtesy of the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League. In seven innings of work, she surrendered just one run on four hits and struck out four.

The Sonoma Stompers, a team in the Pacific Association, boasted a roster with three women in 2016: Piagno was flanked by outfielder Kelsie Whitmore and catcher Anna Kimbrel. In July 2016, Whitmore made history with her first professional hit. That same year, Kimbrel and Whitmore formed the first all-female battery in professional baseball history.

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Piagno represents more than progress in professional baseball. Piagno playing in the pros represents an image for girls aspiring to play baseball, or any sport. It informs them that there’s a way in, and young women are breaking ground for the next generation.

“I believe that in a few years, we’re to have many more women playing on minor league teams and quite possibly in the majors,” said Paloma Benach, who plays for the DC Girls Baseball team. Benach tweets frequently about her and the teams’ experiences on Twitter at @PalomaBenach. “I think that’s the hardest part for us girls, is time — just waiting for the 'impossible' to happen, while people continue to doubt us.”

Spend some time around independent baseball, and you see the grimy ins-and-outs of the life that players, coaches and team staff lead. One story said that a team’s air conditioner was broken for days, with repairs coming only if the team won a game.

Many teams have player-coaches, allowing guys at the end of their playing careers to feel the dirt of the diamond as players, but are leveraged for their experience — and to work double-time in order to save the team cash.

Indy baseball can be far crueler than the minor leagues. Guys are outside the outer limits of pro ball, even with the growing interest and value. As a female reporter, those clubhouses feel more intimidating and a lot less protected.

Piagno, not some hot-house flower protected from the seediness or sexism, told MLB.com that her male teammates have been nothing but supportive. They cheered her from both the bullpen the dugout. That should reassure us: There are guys playing that not only handle women being in professional baseball, but celebrate it. Piagno’s presence alone changes the game.

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“That gives [girls] hope that perhaps things are changing, even if it is incrementally, more girls/women will be provided the opportunity to play,” said "Super Tools" author Michele Yulo. Yulo, creator of "Princess Free Zone," a blog that celebrates girls' accomplishments and equality, is also the mother of Gabriella, who plays baseball.

“Stacy’s win should say to [boys and men]: women can and do compete at higher levels.”

Benach echoes that inspirational statement.

“Stacy definitely gave us as ballplayers more hope that there was a place for us out there,” she said.

She was also adamant — showing a strong dose of defiance — when asked about any backlash from those who aren’t supportive of girls or women’s baseball.

“If critics come and tell us that we can’t play ball then we just tell ourselves that they’re wrong,” Benach said. “If they don’t believe that girls can make it, then they haven’t done their research and they’re just plain stupid.”

Oh, how that defiance comes in handy when up against some of those critics, many of whom can be vicious, especially on social media. These girls are building up a high tolerance for anyone that tries to halt their desire and goal to play baseball. No, not softball: baseball. They’re ready for what they know is coming and what’s been said many times. Piagno, while incredibly important, is only one player pursuing that path, and this fight for an opportunity, like any athlete hopes for, has been active for years.

Yulo knows the “girls have softball” argument firsthand and has seen her daughter grow into exactly who she wants to be. Yulo’s discovered that many people turn a blind eye to that.

“My daughter [age 12] has been playing baseball since she was four years old,” Yulo said. “She’s put in a lot of hard work to play and be competitive. She simply does not want to 'switch' to softball and I don’t believe she should have to.

"Over the years, it’s been a constant battle to have to explain to people why she’s playing and why she won’t be switching, or to explain to people why her growth chart shouldn’t matter. I always point out that most boys will not play college baseball and very few will make it to the majors.”

The pride of watching her daughter play and choose to continue to play might seem like enough comfort, but Yulo now has the challenge of watching her daughter discover the way the world perceives her and girls like her.

“Now that she’s a little older, she has begun to understand that there is a lot more to succeeding than just being a great player. Girls and women who play are constantly under a microscope: Consequently, they must develop a strong sense of self while letting the negative stuff slide,” Yulo explains. “I know that she has to fight on her own both on and off the field. But I will always be her best advocate.”

For a child facing these battles, on and off the field, examples of women who’ve been there, and are succeeding in overlooking all the doubts along the way, are a lighthouse. Parents can do whatever's within their power, but children seeing relatable women, doing what they hope to do, serves as that bright light in the distance. Athletes might not always feel comfortable as role models, but you just can’t change the powerful influence their example inspires.

If Piagno’s presence and her success are a signal that women and girls can play at the professional level, how does that further impact the possibility of them playing affiliated baseball? And even getting to the major leagues?

We play with these questions, tossing out our thoughts here and there on the social media landscape. Sports journalists contemplate the question occasionally, as the subject weaves in out of national interest, or a young woman like Sarah Hudek, who played college baseball for Texas A&M, then opted to switch to softball.

But while there’s discussion and insistence that women in professional baseball is possible, there’s no real movement toward that happening, at least not for now.

But for now, we can tip our caps to Piagno, Whitmore and all the girls and women who play and dream about more. Maybe someday we’ll see that dream realized and, maybe, sooner than we only recently envisioned.