High school baseball teams in Pennsylvania have their hands tied when it comes to the number of games they can play. And the knot is tighter in this state than most others.

Weather for baseball has been terrific in Southwestern Pennsylvania this spring, and a number of coaches wanted to play more games. But the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association limits baseball and softball teams to 20 games in the regular season.

A sampling of some other states shows Pennsylvania's game limit is low.

	The Numbers Here are the maximum number of regular-season games baseball and softball teams are allowed to play in Pennsylvania, and some other states. State Games Delaware 20 Florida 25 Illinois 35 Indiana 28 *-Michigan 36 New Hampshire 20 New Jersey 25 ** -Ohio 27 Pennsylvania 20 *** West Virginia 32 * Based on a point system, where one game equals two points. A doubleheader equals three points. Teams are allowed 56 points in one season. ** Games must be played in 23 dates. *** Includes 17 games and three tournaments. Teams are allowed to play six games in a tournament.

West Virginia teams are allowed to play 32 regular-season games. Indiana teams can play 28, New Jersey 25 and Illinois 35. In Michigan, if teams are willing to play some doubleheaders, they could play as many as 36 games in the regular season.

Ohio baseball and softball teams are allowed to play 27 games, but they have to be on 23 days. In other words, a team can only play 27 if it plays some doubleheaders.

Two states -- Delaware and New Hampshire -- also limit their teams to 20 games. But most states allow more.

"In baseball, I think you get better the more games you play," Blackhawk coach Bob Amalia said. "Kids want to play games. I don't think they want to practice all the time."

The PIAA claims it doesn't want to increase the number of games for a few reasons. First, it would take athletes away from the classroom more. Second, more games means more money. Umpires are paid for games and buses are needed for away contests.

In the early 1980s, the PIAA put a limit on the number of games played in the regular season for baseball and softball. Until then, it was not uncommon for some teams to play close to 30 games in the regular season. For example, longtime coaches such as Shaler's Jerry Matulevic, Connellsville's Tom Sankovich and Peabody's Ken McDonough, who are all retired, would schedule a non-section doubleheader for Saturdays.

The Pennsylvania Baseball Coaches Association and the WPIAL Baseball Coaches Association have urged the PIAA to raise the game limit. Last year, the PIAA baseball committee got the PIAA Board of Control to consider a proposal that would have raised the game limit to 24 games. The Board voted down the idea.

"The Board is not embracing a change," said Bob Lombardi, associate executive director of the PIAA. Lombardi added many athletic directors and school principals have told the PIAA not to raise the game limit.

"The Board has been really sensitive to the 'time out of school' issue lately," Lombardi said. "Plus, many athletic directors, especially in the northern part of our state, have found it so difficult to even get 20 games because of the weather."

In the WPIAL, section play in baseball concluded Wednesday. There are a few teams playing final games (non-section) today and tomorrow. Of the 129 teams in the WPIAL, 16 have played the limit of 20 games. Twenty-five have played 19 games and close to 50 have played 18 games.

"I don't think expenses of more games is a good reason," Peters Township coach Joe Maize said. "I used to be an athletic director and I think one of the reasons we don't play more games might be because of the inconvenience and stress placed on athletic directors because of weather. If the weather is not good, it's hard to even schedule 20 games.

"I know there were times when we had bad weather in the spring, and we were playing doubleheaders and tripleheaders the last two or three days just to get in all of our section games."

Peters Township has a 19-0 record heading into tonight's regular-season finale.

"We definitely would've liked to play more games," Maize said.

Charleroi coach Bruno Pappasergi doesn't favor raising the game limit. His team has played 19 games.

"I've been in this for 22 years and this is the most games we've ever played," Pappasergi said. "I think the bigger schools would gladly like to play more games, but it could be a problem for smaller schools.

"There are rules to how many innings you can pitch in a week. In all honesty, how many teams, especially at the smaller schools, have enough pitching to play more than 20 games."

North Allegheny athletic Bob Bozzuto is the head of the WPIAL baseball committee and also has urged the PIAA to raise the game limit.

"But one of the things you have to look at is the number of teams over the past few years that didn't play 20 games," Bozzuto said. "We've had some teams playing only 14 games in a year.

"I would hope that one day soon this [increased game limit] would get approved. But I would urge coaches to play their 20 games. Until there's a track record of more teams doing that, it's hard to push through."