The Clock Is Ticking and Little League Baseball Remains on Hold

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT – If you were hoping that local Little League baseball play could resume in the near future, there was no good news to come from a Saturday meeting of District 12 Little League administrators.

Keystone Little League administrator Rich Lyons was among those in attendance and he said afterwards that the beginning of any local league play is dependent on CDC guidelines being followed and Gov. Tom Wolf saying it will be safe to play. He said that means a state designation of “green” and word that athletic competitions can resume. Clinton and other District 12 counties are presently in the state’s “yellow” designation, moving from “red” on Friday.

Lyons said the first emphasis will be to try and get some regular season play in for both baseball and softball at the league level. He called the current holding pattern “disappointing,” but added, “We’re not throwing in the towel yet.”

The state Little League Association had issued a statement earlier this month announcing it had cancelled all “2020 Pennsylvania section and state level tournaments for all divisions of Little League.” The state coordinator of district administrators, Bill Dichrich, said, “The Association took this action due to the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus mitigation. The probability of some counties of the state being able to resume Little League activities at different times than others makes it problematic to be able to schedule section and state tournaments where all area can participate.”

Little League teams at all age levels, boys and girls, have not been able to begin 2020 activities because of the coronavirus and most fields have been locked up. If and when an area goes “green,” it was explained by District 12 administrator Scott Leinbach, teams would be given two weeks to get organized to play games in 2020.