Community baseball.

That’s what the Butler County Area Baseball League professes to be.

A laid-back atmosphere. Neighbor playing against neighbor. A lot of fun and smiles on the field.

And while the BCABL is all of those things, it’s proven to be something else this season.

Competitive.

Freeport won the regular season title with a 14-3 record. After drawing a first-round bye in the double-elimination tournament, Freeportdropped two games and was eliminated.

Butler Township defeated Freeport, 6-5, then edged Karns City, 2-0, before losing in extra innings to Pine Richland. Cranberry lost in extra innings to Pine Richland as well.

The biggest story of the tournament has been West Sunbury, which reeled off four straight tourney wins — three against higher seeds — after dropping a 10-2 decision to Cranberry in its opener.

West Sunbury was only 5-12 this season and entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed. After dropping that opener by a lopsided score, it easily could have gone through the motions, running into the No. 1 seed in the third round.

But something happens in all sports, including community baseball.

When you’re playing a game, you’re playing to win.

Nobody wants to lose — ever.

This West Sunbury team is a prime example of that.

Teams come and go in the BCABL. It’s the very nature of summer community baseball.

It can be hard to find players. It can be hard to find coaches. Players go on vacation during the season. Some kids have to miss games because of work.

That’s how it is in this day and age. I get it.

Still, it’d be nice to see Saxonburg, Center Township and Mars get back in the league. Make it a 10-team circuit and an 18-game regular season, everybody playing everybody else twice.

Doubleheaders seem to work. They can make up for rainouts and reduce the number of game days — and time commitments — the players and coaches have to make.

It takes a lot of effort and dedication to make a league like this work. Kudos to the BCABL officers and coaches for pulling it off.

Using much of the league entry fees for three $1,000 scholarships to deserving players has proven to be an ongoing, worthwhile program as well.

A lot of high school baseball players — like so many other sports — opt to play travel ball during the summer. They like putting themselves out there against high-level competition to hopefully win over college scouts.

That’s all well and good.

But there’s something to be said for community baseball as well, giving kids the opportunity to play more baseball with their buddies while representing their neighborhoods with very limited travel.

One thing every kid in the BCABL can say: I had fun.

Baseball is a game, after all.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle