Indiana County Baseball League will have new look

There will be a new look and a new champion in the Indiana County Baseball League in 2017.

Returning six-time champion Bovard, coached by Mike Johnson, will not return. But the league is expanding from five to seven teams. Games are scheduled to begin Sunday.

The new teams joining holdovers Blairsville, West Lebanon, Apollo and New Derry are Greensburg, Kiski Valley and Springdale, giving the league teams from four counties (Allegheny, Armstrong, Indiana and Westmoreland).

Greensburg and Kiski Valley are headed by a couple of former Blairsville players: Nick Draghi and Bill Emerick.

“It's disappointing that Mike and his team isn't returning,” league president George Sulkosky said. “It's like seeing the Yankees fold up. Mike had the best interest for the league, and he, like other coaches in the league, was finding it difficult to get a commitment from players all the time.

“Mike had to forfeit a game last year, and New Derry also has a new coach because of the same reason.”

Johnson still is going to play. He's on the Greensburg roster, and Draghi, one of the coaches, said Johnson has helped the team get established.

Greensburg will play its games at Bovard.

“Mike was very helpful,” Draghi said. “When we had trouble finding a field, Mike got us Bovard.”

Kiski Valley, coached by Emerick, will play at Kiski Area High School, and Springdale, managed by Art Sweet, will play its games at Springdale High School.

“We had a meeting in Blairsville, and Art said the trip from Springdale only took about 45 minutes,” Sulkosky said.

Since Sulkosky took over as president, he has seen some teams leave the league.

Not fielding teams are Marion Center, Indiana, Creekside, Ford City and Homer City.

“I'm just glad we can still continue the league,” Sulkosky said. “Hopefully we can continue to expand.”

Emerick is a 2011 graduate of Kiski Area. After playing collegiately at Pitt-Bradford, Emerick coached one year at Kiski Area. Now the Plum assistant is eager to play with some of the players he coached a year ago.

“They wanted somewhere to play, so we decided to put together a team,” Emerick said. “It's neat some of these guys watched me play when I was in high school. Now we get to play together.”

Draghi played six seasons for Joe Cullers in Blairsville. He said Johnson, Nate and Dom Mori, Mike Nowicki, Anthony Fanelli and Cory Hegedus, who played for Bovard, are on the roster along with Latrobe assistant and Mt. Pleasant and Seton Hill grad Zac Heide.

“We have a lot of guys from the Greensburg area on the roster,” Draghi said.

Sweet said he saw an article in the newspaper about the league looking for teams, so he found enough players around Springdale to form a team.

“A lot of these guys have played against players from Kiski, Apollo and Greensburg in Little League,” Sweet said. “We're looking forward to creating rivalries against Kiski, Apollo and West Lebanon (western Indiana County). It's nothing for Springdale teams to travel.”

And Sulkosky said creating new rivalries is good for the league.

“We lost a couple good rivalries over the years,” he said. “We're excited to get started.”

Paul Schofield is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.