Out with the old, in with the new.

The West End of the city lost a franchise in the Greater Pittsburgh Federation League this season, but gained another. The 20th Ward team folded during the offseason but Elliott is the league's newest team.

Former Bishop Canevin star Ryan Douglass is managing the team and he is aided in the operations by Ed White, who has been heavily involved with in Elliott youth and adult baseball over the years, and players D.J. Sammel, A.J. Anthony and Greg Dukes.

Douglass, a 1997 Bishop Canevin graduate drafted in the 13th round of the Major League Baseball draft that summer, played professionally for nine years. He played seven seasons in the Kansas City Royals' organization -- advancing as high as the Class AA level -- and one with the Montreal Expos' Class A and Class AA teams. Then he went 11-3 with a 3.25 ERA for the 2005 Washington Wild Things. In all, Douglass won 49 games as a minor league pitcher.

He said he sees this as an opportunity to come home and play for a hometown team.

"A lot of the guys on the team I played with nine years ago," Douglass said. "And now I get to play with them again. Just about everybody on the team is pretty much a local guy, so it's been fun."

Elliott has been competitive during its expansion campaign, sitting at 6-6 after an 8-7 loss against Bethel Park Monday.

Pitching was a big reason why. Between Douglass, David Lee, Matt Barnes and Anthony Trapuzzano, Elliott has one of the deepest and most talented starting pitching staffs in the league.

That staff is a nice balance between two veterans with professional experience in Douglass and Lee and two talented youngsters, each of whom had impressive seasons this spring for the College of Wooster, a Division III powerhouse that went 42-7 last season.

Lee, a Langley High School graduate who played at Mercyhurst College, played for the Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians during a five-year period from 1999-2004. He went 5-2 with a 4.37 ERA and a save in 96 Major League games and pitched professionally for 11 seasons in all.

Lee, 34, was pitching at the Class AAA level as recently as last season.

Matt Barnes and Anthony Trapuzzano are the relative youngsters giving the rotation a boost.

Barnes, who graduated from Langley last year, was 9-2 with a 2.49 ERA and two complete games for Wooster.

Trapuzzano had similar numbers for Wooster. A 2005 Bishop Canevin alumnus, he went 9-2 with a 2.32 ERA and three complete games.

"Going into it, we had a good feeling with the four of us pitching, we would be pretty good from that [pitching] standpoint," Douglass said. "We'll just have to see how the hitting will be working out. A lot of guys have been living life and hadn't seen live pitching in a while."

Shortstop Justin Thomas is another Wooster product. He serves as the team's cleanup hitter. The Shady Side Academy graduate hit .325 as a freshman at Wooster last season.

But beyond the group of Wooster players, most of the Elliott players are veterans. Sammel hits third in the lineup and Anthony has been an offensive force.

The top four teams qualify for the Federation League playoffs, and Elliott hopes to be among that group at the end of this season. The results lead you to believe that is well within the realm of possibility

"Overall, we can't complain," Douglass said.

"We have a little bit of adjusting we have to do, but we don't really give up and we've been very competitive."