Michelle Krill Field at Pullman Park won't be sitting empty for most of this summer after all.

“Actually, this will be one of our busiest summers down there,” said Dean Selfridge, director of the Butler ballpark.

Two Tri-State Collegiate League franchises — the Pittsburgh Diamond Dawgs and Core Athletics — will both be playing their home games at Pullman. The TSCL is a six-team league that plays a 32-game schedule.

The Diamond Dawgs and Athletics will play 16 home games each at Pullman. The Butler BlueSox, who left the Prospect League and disbanded following the 2018 season, played roughly 30 home games a season there.

Other TSCL teams play home games at North Hills, North Allegheny, La Roche College and Youngstown, Ohio. There had been a team in West Virginia, but that organization will not be playing this season.

Core Athletics have been in the TSCL for four years and played its home games at Butler County Community College last season. It will play under a different name this year, “one that better suits Butler,” Shawn Manning, one of the team's coaches and organizers, said.

Manning is a Butler resident and one of four people involved with coaching and putting the team's roster together.

“Our roster isn't finalized yet, but we will have a number of players from Butler, Slippery Rock, other communities around here,” Manning said. “We don't do host families, so we keep our roster as local as possible.”

The Diamond Dawgs organization has existed since 2004, but this will be the first year it will field a summer collegiate team. The organization fields youth development teams for ages 8-18.

The Diamond Dawgs' U-18 team from last season sent 20 of its 22 players on to collegiate baseball programs. The organization has had 25 to 30 alumni go on to professional baseball.

“Our entire (collegiate team) roster will be former Diamond Dawg players,” coach Scott Bischke said. “We're excited about this. We will have a few guys on our team from the Butler area.”

Todd Stephan will be head coach of the Diamond Dawg team. He lives in Upper St. Clair and was a pitcher in the Baltimore Orioles organization.

The TSCL normally plays weekend games during the day, but these teams will play at night “by request of the city,” Bishke said.

Both teams will pay rent to play at the ballpark. All rent, gate receipts and concessions from home games will go to the city.

“We're thrilled to be bringing these two teams in,” Selfridge said. “We know how much people loved the BlueSox and we're hoping the fans come out and support these teams as well.”

Manning said when Pullman Park became available, “we couldn't resist the opportunity to play there.

“We love the history of baseball and we love Pullman Park,” he said.

Selfridge said that Atlantic Coast Baseball and West Penn Elite will bring U-16 all-star tournaments to Pullman Park on weekends during the summer as well.

A few concerts will be housed by the ballpark, also.

“We're going to keep the place busy,” Selfridge said. “In terms of baseball, there will be plenty of interesting events going on.

“We are planning some Fireworks Nights as well ... maybe not as many as the BlueSox had, but we will have some.”