Call 2004 a year of change in Butler County American Legion Baseball:

The league has moved out of Region 6 (Allegheny, Fayette, Westmoreland counties) and into Region 7 (Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria, Centre counties).

Only one BCAL team will qualify for regional play instead of two.

Saxonburg and Butler City will not have teams this season, meaning only six of nine teams will qualify for the BCAL playoffs.

The league has three first-year managers - Jeff Steinbrink at Cranberry Township, Bo Ballew at Meridian and Mark White at Prospect.

And all three have visions of playoffs dancing in their heads as the season opens tonight.

"That's the way it is this year," 14th-year Zelienople manager Tom Schneider said. "Everybody believes they can get in and the league looks pretty bunched up to me."

Zelienople reached the league semifinals last year with a 13-6 record. But only four starters return, including pitchers Brett Hancher and Greg Slack.

"My goal is to keep three teams behind me," Center Township manager Kevin Shaffer said. "We made the playoffs two years ago, which was the first time in a while, and I believe we can get back there."

Center Township was 1-19 last year, but has 14 of its 18 players returning.

"Our big difference is that 11 of our 18 players have varsity or junior varsity experience," Shaffer said. "Last year, we had one."

Nathan Markle - a solid pitcher for Moniteau High School this year - and fourth-year Legion player Dan Ristity anchor Shaffer's pitching staff.

Karns City and Mars have been the top two teams in the BCAL the past two years and Mars has advanced to the regional in each of the past four years.

But veteran Mars manager Bob Steiner describes his pitching as "a big unknown" and has 13 first-year players on his roster.

"We've gone to the regional six of the past nine years, but we have to wait and see what happens this year," Steiner said. "Mike Skurko is our only regular returnee on the mound.

"We have a lot of players who say they've pitched a lot in their young careers and we're going to give them a shot."

Because of Karns City's current high school success, many BCAL managers are saying Terry Steihler's Karns City squad is the team to beat.

Steihler himself is not among them.

"I think we'll be OK, but the No. 1 team? I don't know about that," Steihler said. "I'm not getting enough of those high school boys to play Legion ball this summer."

He does have some good ones, though, in pitcher Scott Jordan, catcher Josh Smith, second baseman Shayne Bell and first baseman-third baseman Dave Slagle."We're going to be hurting bad for pitching behind Jordan," Steihler said. "I'd like to keep Josh where he belongs - behind the plate - but he's my No. 2 pitcher right now."Gene Zawrotuk's Butler Township squad finished third in the league last year "without any pitching," he said. His top three arms this year are Adam Palace, Josh Edwards and Brian Bell.East Butler manager Dess Schnur - the dean of the league's managers - has some capable arms in Tony Rossmiller, Mike Dorondo and Shane Seybert. Second baseman Todd Walker anchors his lineup."We're optimistic," Schnur said. "I'm just glad the regular season counts for something, because it should."The BCAL's regular season champion will play its tournament champion in a best-of-three series to determine who represents the league in regional play.Ballew played for Meridian five years ago and has set a goal of his team being competitive in every game. Joey Ference, Tom Levere and Scott Cukovich are his top three pitchers.White takes over a Prospect team that is anchored by veteran pitchers Mike DeCola, Adam Rose, Bill Dillen and Mark Doerr."Over the years, Prospect has taken a number of teams to the playoffs," White said. "We hope to be respectable in the league and get back to that point."Steinbrink had coached a Colt team in the Cranberry area before taking over the Legion program that won only six games last year."We only have five returning players, but we can make a legitimate run for the playoffs," he said.Matt Steinbrink and John Sklarsky anchor the Cranberry pitching staff.