There are only a few days left to sign up kids to play baseball or softball with the Greene County Youth Athletic Association.

President of GCYAA Travis Warnke says there are four age divisions with t-ball for boys and girls who are five years old, then there are separate baseball and softball leagues with Minors that are first and second grade, American are third and fourth grade, and those in fifth and sixth grades are in the Major league. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that practices start in April, with games beginning the first week of May, and the seasons end on June 14th.

Warnke points out that their programs for first through fourth grades heavily use the pitching machines in several different areas, including fielding so that coaches can really focus on improving those skills without having to go through the actions of trying to deliver a ground ball or a fly ball, to offense when a player is in the batters box.

“You can really focus on the kids on getting the bat on the ball because you are giving them that consistent pitch. They’re used to seeing what a strike looks like. Coach Pitch and those types of things, the problem is it changes the trajectory of the ball angle. It’s not that the coaches can’t pitch, it’s just you’re having to slow it down and it changes that angle, you start to instill some bad habits. So we want to break that by putting the pitching machine in there.”

There is now a late fee charged with registrations until the final deadline of March 19th. Total registration is $45 for T-ball and $80 for the other leagues. Players must provide their own glove, batting helmet black socks and cleats, and GCYAA provides the jerseys, pants and bats if players do not have their own. There is also an additional $20 fee for families that do not want to volunteer. Click here to sign up online.