Their games are played with a ball the same size, on a field not unlike many of those used by the countless slow-pitch softball leagues in the district or across the country.

The uniforms don't look much different, and at least one of the teams is even named after a bar. But make no mistake, the Burgettstown Men's Fastpitch Softball League is unlike any other in southwestern Pennsylvania.

And for the reason why, well, the name says it all.

According to league officials, it is said to be one of only two for the fast-pitch version of the sport for men in Western Pennsylvania (the other is in Erie), and draws players from the southern and western suburbs of Pittsburgh as well as parts of West Virginia and Ohio.

"The fast-pitch game itself is as close to baseball as you'll get," said Ed Cooke, a league veteran who is the secretary and treasurer of the league. "In fast-pitch you have stealing and bunting and people will strike out. Slow-pitch doesn't have anything like that."

The league, which has been around for more than half a century, currently boasts five teams that play primarily at Langeloth Field near Burgettstown.

While the league always has been centered in Burgettstown -- and nearby Avella -- it at one time had franchises as far away as Pittsburgh and in the South Hills. The league has had more than two dozen teams at times and last season fielded seven squads.

But the trend for the sport in the area has been on the decline in recent years, nationally and locally. While some areas of the country have rich histories in men's fast-pitch softball -- Eastern Pennsylvania has dozens of leagues, for example, and the sport has more of a foothold in parts of Ohio than here -- Western Pennsylvania has never been as fertile a ground.

Still, the Burgettstown league was in its peak in the 1970s and early '80s, and one of its teams won the state championship tournament in 1985. The annual event, called the Amateur Softball Association of Pennsylvania Major Fast-pitch Championships, takes place in northeastern Pennsylvania.

"That side of the state has some very, very good teams and players," said league vice president Dave Kutschbach, an Upper St. Clair native who lives in Mt. Lebanon. "They take it seriously over there."

Long relying almost exclusively on word-of-mouth to recruit players, the league is hoping an infusion of new talent from farther away will aid in its survival and lead to a renaissance.

The league has had players ranging in age from those still in high school all the way up through someone such as Cooke, who was pitching into his 60s.

"If more people knew about it," Kutschbach said, "we know more people would take part in it."

In his first season in an administrative role with the league, Kutschbach wants to expand the league toward the Pittsburgh area, noting that teams formerly thrived there.

Walchesky, who lives in the Beechview section of Pittsburgh and coaches softball at Allderdice High School in the City League, is one of the few examples of current players "commuting" to play in the Burgettstown league.

"I still like doing it. I don't mind a little bit of travel," he said.

At 49, Walchesky, a graduate of Southmoreland High School, is still one of the top pitchers in the league. With softball pitching being much easier on the arm than overhand baseball, he plans on playing a few more years because he enjoys it so much.

"Camaraderie is a big part of it," Walchesky said, noting that three members of his wedding party were guys he met in the league. "Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here with a heating pad on my arm if it wasn't that fun."

But while pitching is obviously the most fundamental difference in this version of the sport, it also is threatening to become its demise. The fast-pitch style allows for the game to have much more of a baseball feel to it, which attracts hitters to the sport.

The problem? Finding pitchers who possess the skill to throw effectively and consistently for strikes. Hence why many of the pitchers are older; if you can do it, you'll always have a job. Once a generation of pitchers retires ...

"You can't field a team without a competitive pitcher," Walchesky said. "It's not a skill that is easy to just pick up in a short period of time. Sometimes, younger guys start messing around with pitching, but they take their lumps early on, lose a lot of games and get discouraged."

Competition from a growing number of slow-pitch leagues and amateur baseball leagues is another part of what is hindering fast-pitch. But fast-pitch players stress that their sport is the perfect combination of a game that's not as rough on the body as baseball but is highly competitive and skilled, unlike the typical slow-pitch game.

"In slow-pitch, basically anybody can play, anybody can get a hit," Kutschbach said. "You almost have to have some sort of strong baseball background growing up [to play fast-pitch]. You rarely get the 14-12 games you get in slow-pitch.

"When you get a runner on, you have to move him up. It's a more pure baseball-type game."