Will there be spring and summer baseball in Lebanon County?
That was the question put to the leaders of the Lebanon Valley Midget, Lebanon Valley Teener and Lebanon County Legion baseball teams, in light of the recent Coronavirus pandemic.
Bryan Vachon, Lebanon Valley Midget Baseball League President, said “We are not officially affiliated with Little League. We do not pay a registration fee but we do follow their guidelines. For example we follow their pitch count rules but we also have our own local by-laws.
“Their recommendation to registered teams is that nothing be done prior to April 6,” continued Vachion. “What we have done, in conjunction with the Lebanon County Pony Baseball League, is send information to everyone stating that we can’t mandate to each association what they can or cannot do, but this is what the Little League recommendation is but we do not have to follow it because we are not registered.”
He ended with, “As of this time we plan to open in mid-April unless some other situations occur that would require us to reconsider it.”
Tony Louwerse, President of the Lebanon Valley Teener League replied, “We really haven’t discussed it to date, but probably will meet in the next week or so.
“Unlike the Little League operation, the State VFW offers the guidelines for our program but they don’t dictate how we run our program,” added Louwerse. “We have eight teams (Palmyra, Annville, Cleona, Iona, Cornwall, Major League, Lebanon VFW Post 23 and Ebenezer) and as of now I’m assuming we will be playing games starting in early May.”
Lyle Krall, Vice President of the Lebanon County Legion League, said, “The plan is to open the season on May 26 and finish July 2. There will be eight teams again this season with four in each division.
“The East Division is Ephrata, Richland, Myerstown and Conrad Weiser,” Krall continued. “The West Division has Campbelltown, Fredericksburg, 5th Ward and Annville. It will be a 17 game schedule having three games against division teams and two games against the other division.”
He summed it up saying, “The bottom line is it will be business as usual unless the high school schedules get extended.”