BUTLER TWP — Fennell Brothers Baseball is growing.

It's exploding, actually.

Butler graduates Mick and Ryan Fennell, their own playing careers over, put together their own organization in efforts to develop youth baseball players. They put on clinics and camps, and had a pair of travel teams, 8-under and 10-under, this season.

“Travel baseball has become very, very popular,” Ryan Fennell said. “People want to play better competition, face better teams from outside the area. Some of these tournaments are only an hour or so away, right around Pittsburgh.

“Others are down south, in Ohio … they're all over the place. We're trying to keep up with the demand.”

And that demand is high.

Fennell Baseball plans to expand from two travel teams this year to 14 or 16 such teams next year, ranging in age from 8-under to 15.

“We're going to have the numbers to fill out those teams,” Mick Fennell said. “We'll be working with 150 to 200 kids. Now we need fields to put them on.”

Fennell Baseball has an indoor facility in Wexford and another in Zelienople. Their prime outdoor field was Zelienople Community Park. They've also used Ingomar and Brad-Mar Pine.

Now they're looking to add three more fields — one Little League-sized, two big fields — at Brush Creek Park in Beaver County. The facility is 10 to 15 minutes from Zelienople, Mick Fennell said.

Those fields have sat idle for years and have been let go, with grass and weeds overgrown on the diamonds.

“The three backstops are there and you can see how nice a complex that would be,” Mick said.

So Fennell Brothers approached county commissioners with a proposal to pay $42,000 to revamp and redevelop those ball fields. In return, money would be taken off their rental fee for field use and they would be granted first access to the facility.

“The county would still own the fields and can rent them out, do what they want with them anytime we're not using it,” Mick said.

“The deal is 99.9 percent done,” Ryan said. “It just needs to be finalized. We have a landscaper ready to come in and begin work sometime in the next two weeks.”

Mick Fennell played college baseball at California (Pa.) University and was selected as an outfielder by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 22nd round of the 2016 MLB draft. An eye issue ended his career in the minor leagues. Ryan Fennell was a pitcher at La Roche College and last played in 2014. He works full time in sales.

“Kids come a long way to be part of our program,” Ryan said. “They come in from as far out as Morgantown, Meadville, Steubenville and Murrysville. We want to give them teams to play for.”

The Fennell family has plenty of baseball contacts. Mick and Ryan are tapping into some of those resources as potential coaches for their travel teams next year.

“Ryan Cox (Hopewell), Derek Wood (Seneca Valley), Colin Williamson (Butler), those are a few of the guys we want to pull in,” Mick said.

The Brush Creek field renovations may be completed by this fall. Fennell Baseball will likely wait until spring of 2022 to put them to use.