Just wrapping up its third season, the Western Pennsylvania Elite Baseball League continues to provide the highest level of baseball for 18-and-under players in the area.

The league has shown continued growth with an all-time high of 11 teams this year.

Bulldog Baseball (17-2) and the Steel City Wildcats (17-3) finished atop the regular-season standings with the Steel City Wildcats defeating Elite League newcomer North Allegheny, 7-5, in the final Tuesday at La Roche College.

In the double-elimination format, North Allegheny reached the title game from the losers bracket and had to defeat the Wildcats twice on Monday but the first game dragged into the night with NA winning, 14-13, and forcing the championship game to be rescheduled for Tuesday.

College coaches have certainly taken advantage of having the league for this area. Rather than travel to four or five games in a weekend to see some of the top prospects in the area, they could just scout one Elite League game. Any one game could have numerous prospects on the field at one time.

Along with North Allegheny, Revolution Baseball and the South Hills Merchants were the other newcomers this season.

"It was unbelievable," said South Hills manager Joe Delsardo on his first year experience in the league. "It was everything we thought it would be and more.

"Every day you are playing against excellent players, just the best players around."

The Merchants went 6-14 and qualified for the playoffs. Some of their top players included Seton-LaSalle's Derek Law and Patric Capatolla and West Allegheny catcher Rick Devereaux.

North Allegheny is the only team that draws all of its players from one high school. NA along with Seneca Valley and Springdale play in both the Elite League and Palomino League but the Seneca and Springdale rosters comprised players from different schools. \

NA joined the Elite League in an effort to keep all of the varsity players together rather than having them play for AAU teams. NA is one of the only schools that would be able to compete using just its varsity roster in large part because of the large enrollment at the school.

The league is a metal-bat league rather than a wooden-bat league like the Greater Pittsburgh Federation League. The biggest reason is because colleges use metal bats and one of the top objectives of the league is to get players ready for college competition.

"I think the biggest thing with the league is the popularity it's gaining," said Mark Saghy, Steel City Wildcats manager and one of the league founders.

"The first year we went out and found kids to play and then the word just spread. More kids are asking to jump on board and that is the biggest compliment.

"More and more people want to get involved and colleges are coming to watch us play. If you come to one of our games, you are going to see more than one player who is a college prospect."

College scouts can be found at just about every Elite League game with the Division I local programs such as Pitt and Duquesne represented, but also schools in the Mid-American Conference and from the eastern side of the state.

Patrick Cutshall, the Sports Zone Red Sox manager, has seen the improved commitment from the teams as the biggest sign of progress in the league.

After noting that only two teams completed and 18-game schedule in the first season of the Elite League, Cutshall was happy to see every team reach 18, including most playing the full complement of 20 despite a rainy summer.

"The commitment is much better from the teams and the competition has been unbelievable the past two years," said Cutshall, whose team went 12-8 this year.

"The guys who play in [both] this league and in Legion, they will tell you to hit .300 in our league is quite an accomplishment. In Legion ball, they might hit .500 or even .600.

"The difference is the pitching; you got number one pitchers from three or four different schools on one roster."

Some of the top players on the Red Sox are Brian Billigen from Bishop Canevin, Seneca Valley's Cory Mazzoni who was drafted in the 26th round of the MLB draft, and Quinten Williams from Central Catholic, who was drafted in the 38th round

The exclusion of the Sports Zone Red Sox from a league in Youngstown, Ohio, three years ago was a big factor behind the formation of the Elite League. That's when talks began to form a similar league in the Pittsburgh area.

The Red Sox play their home games at Monaca High School. Most teams pay a fee to use fields because few draw a lot of players from one particular school district.

Along with the tough Elite League schedule, teams also travel to play in tournaments. Mike Kosko, another one of the league's founders took his team, Bulldog Baseball, to a Youngstown tournament that they won and the Past Time Tournament in Indianapolis where Bulldog Baseball reached the semifinals out of 48 teams in the tournament.

Mike Pelekanos (Franklin Regional), Dave Trushel (Bethel Park) and Matt Pierpont (Canon-McMillan) were the top pitchers for Bulldog Baseball this year.

A lot of players in the league have already signed letters of intent to play at Division I schools around the country next season. Ryan Fairbrother (Pitt), Jordan Jankowski (Miami of Ohio), Jordan Steranka (Penn State), Jim Rider (Kent State), Mazzoni (North Carolina State) and Taylor Juran (Temple) will join 50 other Elite League alums playing at the collegiate level.

"Mark Saghy does an unbelievable job in terms of running the league," DelSardo said. "I would venture to say that when a college coach is looking for a baseball player [in Western Pennsylvania], the first person they call is Mark."