The Sarnia Braves 18U and 15U teams will have even stiffer competition this upcoming baseball season.
The teams have been invited to play in the Quad-A Premier Baseball League of Ontario (PBLO) starting in 2021.
The 18U Braves are moving up from Triple-A, while the 15U team has been playing at a Double-A level.
President John Vasey said it's a great chance to showcase the skill level of the local players, and the newly renovated Errol Russell Park.
"It gives them [the players] more exposure, and there will be people watching them a lot more," said Vasey. "We've been successful in getting kids into colleges in the states and that. Hopefully this will make it even better. We were really looking forward to this season, after last year when we reopened Errol Russell and the city had put all of the improvements into it. The senior team won the provincial championship, and one of our younger teams did also. We were looking forward to this year and the virus kind of shut us down. This gives us another boost for next year."
Vasey said tryouts will be held sometime in September, and more details will be shared in the coming weeks.
There are seven other squads around the PBLO, including the Tecumseh Thunder, London Badgers, Ontario Yankees, Oakville A's, Oshawa Legionnaires, Ottawa-Nepean Canadians, and Sudbury Voyageurs.
Vasey said league games will be in May and June. The Braves hope to play games in Macomb County, Michigan in June and July depending on the status of the pandemic. They'll then take part in Ontario provincials in August.
The Braves' younger teams are still members of the Western Counties Association and Baseball Ontario.
