Last season the Saxonburg American Legion baseball team was nowhere to be seen.

But the squad returned in 2005 with a vengeance.

Saxonburg (20-2) recently won both the Butler County American Legion Baseball League regular-season and postseason titles. It marks the first time since 1988 that the team was crowned league champion.

Saxonburg will begin its quest for a Region 7 title at 4 p.m. Monday against the Jefferson County champion (either DuBois or Punxsutawney) in State College.

As it awaits the start of that tournament, the team has decided to keep sharp by participating in the Freeport International Baseball Invitational, running through Saturday.

The squad is scheduled to play a team from The Netherlands at 5 p.m. today at Laura Doerr Park in Saxonburg.

"We're looking to get a lot of kids some playing time," said Saxonburg coach Jim Bacon. "Plus, we'll have some fun while we're there."

There's no trophy to be won at the Freeport event, allowing Saxonburg's players to take the field with no pressure and, perhaps, a chance reflect on their accomplishments so far this season.

The squad dropped out of the BCAL last season because of a shortage of players.

"No one stepped up to take control of the team," said Bacon. "And we only had seven or eight boys sign up."

"It's not that there weren't enough kids around who wanted to play baseball," said assistant coach Steve Hall. "But they were split up over several teams. Some of them played Palomino and some played in other leagues."

Third baseman Bob Kruth was one of the few players who signed up to play for Saxonburg's Legion team last summer, but he had to play elsewhere when it was decided there would be no team.

"I ended up playing for Lyndora's Palomino team," said Kruth. "But Saxonburg not having a Legion baseball team, that was pretty bad."

But during the off-season, talk began about reviving the team. The talk turned into action.

"We got a lot of kids moving up from the Colt League," said Bacon. "Plus, Steve (Hall) and Matt DeSantis, who both coached for the (Knoch) high school team, decided to help out with Legion. I think that drew a few more kids in."

The team started fast out of the gate, beginning the season 11-0 before a 1-0 loss to Butler City on June 21.

The only other setback was a loss to Karns City in a 15-10 slugfest on July 7.

Since then, Saxonburg has won five consecutive games, including league playoff wins over Prospect (13-7), Meridian (9-2) and Mars (2-1).

"I don't know if we planned on being (20-2) at this point," said Bacon. "But we knew right from the start that we had a good team."

The vast majority of Saxonburg's players were on Knoch High School's varsity team this past spring.

After its first eight section games, Knoch was struggling with a 2-6 mark.

But the Knights rebounded to win five of their last six section affairs, making the playoffs with a 7-7 mark.

"We're fortunate that we can keep the high school team together for the Legion season," said Hall. "That's not the case with other teams in our league."

"This team has a lot of chemistry," said Kruth. "And it actually goes back to the 2004 high school season. Most of the players have been playing together since then."

No Butler County American Legion team has ever advanced past the regional tournament.

Saxonburg would have no problem bucking that trend.

"We're trying to go as far as we can possibly go," said Kruth. "That's been our goal all season long."

"We're not going out there to have a good time," said assistant coach Jason Dolmeyer. "We're going out to win."