The North suburbs will be a hotbed for wooden-bat summer collegiate baseball league play during the next month.

The newly formed Tri-State Collegiate Summer Baseball League features one team -- the Allegheny Athletics -- playing its home games at North Allegheny High School and another -- the Pittsburgh Pandas -- using La Roche College as its home base.

The Pandas, under the direction of general manager Frank Gilbert, are in their sixth year of operation, having played in several different leagues during that time span, including the Erie Shores League last summer.

The Athletics, sponsored by the McCandless Athletic Association, are in their second year of existence. They also played in the Erie Shores League last season.

Gilbert was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the 11-team Tri-State League and is serving as the first-year league's commissioner. The Pandas and Athletics are in the East Division, along with the Washington (Pa.) Blue Sox, the Youngstown Metros and the Pittsburgh Baseball Training Academy.

The West division has six Ohio teams -- Chillicothe, two Columbus teams (the Big Katz and Hawks), Gahanna, Newark and Otterbein.

In order to play in the Tri-State League, players must be entering their freshman, sophomore, junior or senior years of college or be under 23 years of age before April 1.

Both the Athletics and Pandas were very successful last year. The Athletics captured the Erie Shores League regular-season title with a 21-3 mark and went 3-1 in the postseason. The Pandas finished 25-10-1, advancing to the championship game of the National Amateur Baseball Federation College Division World Series in Toledo, Ohio, before falling.

Both the Pandas and Athletics began this season's 32-game league schedule the second week of June. The regular season ends the third week of July.

The Pandas owned an 8-2 record through Wednesday's play.

The Athletics were 3-4 in the Tri-State League through Wednesday's play. But, how they fare in the Tri-State will only be half of the team's story this season as the Athletics are also playing a 20-game schedule as a member of the All American Amateur Baseball Association (Great Lakes Division). That league is for players age 20 and under.

To play 52 regular-season games in less than two months (six to seven games a week), the Athletics obviously need lots of pitching. Their 23-man roster lists 12 players who can pitch.

Three of Allegheny's returning pitchers -- Virginia Tech's Greg Fryman (5-0), Slippery Rock's Derek Blyzwick (4-0) and Cleveland State's Josh Hungerman (3-0) -- had a combined 12-0 record last year. Fryman and Blyzwick, however, are not eligible in AAABA play as they are both older than 20 years of age.

Both Gilbert and Athletics manager Dave Hungerman say one of the main purposes of being involved in a college summer league is to expose young players to pro scouts.

To that end, the Pandas have had about 20 of their players sign professional contracts over the previous five seasons, including Josh Sharpless, who is with the Pirates' Class AAA farm team at Indianapolis and is expected to come up with the big-league club before season's end.

"These college leagues are well scouted and looked upon highly by professional baseball people," said Dave Hungerman.

Said Gilbert, "One of our main goals when we started this six years ago was to expose the local kids to the scouts and we've done that."

The Pandas, led by manager John Bellaver, have an almost entirely new pitching staff from last season. They do have several key hitters back from last year, including West Virginia University's Mike Schmidt, who hit .411 (39 for 95,) and Pitt's David Cline (.408, 31 for 76 with 21 stolen bases in 22 attempts) and Tony Marciante (.327, 37 for 113 with a team-high six home runs).

The Pandas' and Athletics' goals in Tri-State League play is to qualify for the National Amateur Baseball Federation College Division World Series in Toledo in August. The Athletics will also be shooting for the AAABA World Series in Johnstown in August.