The Orioles-Rays game will be called entirely by women for the first time. For O’s announcer Melanie Newman, it’s been a long time coming.

“While [it’s] great, and you want to bring awareness, you want to connect with a little girl at home, who loves any sport or anything where they don’t feel like they’re represented for them to see that they can pursue these types of roles,” said Newman, who was the primary broadcaster for the High-A Salem Red Sox before joining the Orioles broadcast team. “But at the end of the day, we just want this to be a good broadcast — quality broadcast — and setting gender aside and everything else that does not determine your ability to do a job.”