CENTER TWP — Youth baseball will happen in Center Township this season.

When and in what form remains to be seen.

The plan is to play,” Center Township Athletic Association president Carl Ekas said. “We're looking at a number of scenarios.”

Under normal circumstances, the CTAA — which fields teams from T-Ball through age 18 — would have its Opening Day Saturday. But with Gov. Tom Wolf's stay at home order, no team has even practiced yet.

Last day for sign-ups was March 4 and CTAA coaches have held their drafting of players and set up their teams.

“All of that stuff has been taken care of in-house, but the parents haven't been notified yet,” CT youth baseball coach Clint Kiddle said.

“We haven't even been able to order uniforms yet because all of those places are closed,” Ekas said.

In a normal youth baseball season, the recreation portion of play ends in early June with all-star tournaments getting under way in the second or third week of June. Fall baseball would begin in August.

Kiddle estimated teams would have two weeks to practice once the stay at home order is lifted. The tentative starting date for CTAA games this spring has been adjusted to May 16.

With Gov. Wolf's announcement Monday of the stay at home order extending to May 8, “that date will likely be pushed back another week or so,” Kiddle said.

“We're two weeks behind on everything right now,” Ekas said.

The CTAA consists of roughly 225 kids and 19 teams through Colt League. The organization's baseball complex was vandalized weeks ago, but will not affect the start of the 2020 season.

“We're still waiting on weather and the insurance payment to get all of that cleaned up,” Ekas said. “All of that work will be done before we begin playing.

“Some kids have been on the fields, taking batting practice or playing catch. We've painted over everything (vandalism related), so we're fine with that. These kids want some exercise. As long as social distancing is practiced, nobody has a problem with it.

“Our batting cage has been pretty full ... one kid at a time,” he added.

If the CTAA season is delayed too deeply into May, the organization may forego its all-star tournament season.

“If we can only play three weeks (of rec ball), it'd be hard to determine all-star teams,” Kiddle said. “We may just play a long regular season into July, or when we start losing kids to other sports like soccer and football.

“Even then, we may adjust and keep playing baseball with the kids who are still there.”

Ekas emphasized that nothing has been determined yet.

“We're just reviewing possibilities right now,” he said.

Regardless, the CTAA — especially its coaches — are anxious to get on the field.

“My wife and I were playing catch in the backyard the other day,” Kiddle said. “She said she thinks I miss baseball more than the kids.

“I told her she was right.”