There are plenty of high school baseball players in the area who have a goal of playing the sport in college.

And the Western Pennsylvania Elite Baseball League, in its first year in existence, is helping them get there.

"It got started last October when Bob Mollenhauer called me up and said he'd like to see a league in which the best high school talent in Western Pennsylvania could play each other," said league president Scott Grinder.

"We were able to pull some independent local teams in and it's really worked well," added Grinder.

The 18-and-under league consists of eight teams: the Bulldog Baseball Club, Diamond Dawgs, Pittsburgh Tigers, Sportsplex Rivercats, Southwest Bulldogs, Seneca Valley Palomino, Beaver Valley Red Sox and Beaver Valley White Sox.

Every team has its own home field, which is a welcome change for many of the squads that were used to traveling during the summer.

WPIAL schools, such as Seneca Valley, Baldwin, North Allegheny and Pine-Richland, are well-represented in the league, but some players have come from as far away as Wheeling and Moundsville, W.Va.

The league's regular season ended recently, and six of the eight squads are expected to compete in the playoffs, which will culminate with the championship game Sunday at Slippery Rock University's Critchfield Park.

But no matter which team is crowned champion, all the players have benefitted from the new league.

The league's board of directors relied upon the adage that playing better competition can only improve the players' game.

"Before joining this league, we were a traveling summer team," said Patrick Cutshall, coach of the Beaver Valley Red Sox, which includes Mars' D.J. Cannon. "In the traveling league, we'd go up against a good team one time over the course of a whole weekend. In (the WPEBL), we play a good team every game."

"We knew it would be great competition for the boys," said SV Palomino coach Phil Eonta. "And that's been the case."

The SV squad is made up almost entirely of Seneca Valley baseball players. Only one member — Riverside pitcher Josh Boots — lives outside the school district.

Eonta's team also competes in the Tri-State Baseball League.

Two different schedules have made this a very busy summer for the group.

"Between the two leagues, we'll end up playing over 50 games this summer," Eonta said. "And, with all of the rainouts we've had, we were playing about six or seven games every week with a lot of doubleheaders."

Which is fine with his son, Mike Eonta.

"I personally don't get sick of playing," said the younger Eonta, a second baseman who will be a junior this fall at Seneca Valley. "And I know a lot of the other guys feel the same. We just love playing baseball."

Pitching in the circuit has been especially good.

"Every game, you're facing an ace," said Cannon, a senior at Mars who pitches and plays third base for the Red Sox. "It's a lot tougher than (high) school ball."

But all the talent in the world still needs to be noticed, and the league has covered that base as well.

A talent showcase will take place at Falconi Field in Washington Saturday morning before the league's playoffs begin.

College and pro scouts will be present to see what the best players in the league have to offer.

The league's Honorary Board of Advisors includes former Pittsburgh Pirate Sid Bream, Pirates farm director Brian Graham, Toronto Blue Jays scout Mike Berger and Colorado Rockies scout Ed Santa, among others.

The WPEBL is not ruling out expansion in the coming years.

"We've got some of the best players in Western Pennsylvania right now," said Claudio Reilsono, of the Global Scouting Bureau and also an adviser to the new league. "And as the league gets better, more players will come."