His cell phone still has a "734" area code, but Prospect League manager Jason Wuerfel's Butler Blue Sox team had a significant "412 and "724" flavor to it this summer.

A former Frontier League player and coach moved to the area from Traverse City, Mich., this summer to manage Butler's first year Prospect League team, the Butler Blue Sox. Team president Leo Trich Jr. knew of Wuerfel from their time in the Frontier League and he brought him on board to manage the Blue Sox. Wuerfel and Trich then went about compiling a roster of collegiate players with a strong lean toward former WPIAL high school players.

The Blue Sox completed their inaugural season in the Prospect League with a 28-26 record, finishing in third place in the five-team East Division.

Putting the roster together Trich and Wuerfel relied on contacts they had made in the Frontier League and on recommendation from collegiate coaches. The roster is dotted with players from California to New Jersey and Louisiana to Kentucky. They play at colleges from Youngstown State to Murray State and Seton Hall to Seton Hill.

The hometown crowd at renovated Pullman Park, where the Blue Sox play their home games, has been able to cheer on two local talents, Butler Area High School graduates Aaron Ordy, a second basemen, and pitcher Brian Warheit.

A 2006 graduate, Ordy hit .353 during the regular season at California University of Pennsylvania, where he will be a redshirt junior in the fall. Ordy lives about five minutes from Pullman Park.

"The league has been good to me," Ordy said. "I get to play in a competitive league and be home where friends and family can come watch.

"At first I thought I would be playing summer ball down south but I got to come home and the town has really taken an interest in the Blue Sox and they are giving me a lot of love being from Butler."

Warheit, a 2007 Butler grad and starting pitcher at Seton Hill, has taken advantage of the opportunity to play close to home. He has been able to work during the summer as well, taking care of maintenance at nearby Highfield Park as well as play against the top collegiate talent in the area.

"The league has been really convenient, it has allowed me to work and the competition is great," Warheit said.

"[The competition] is probably better than the level I see at school. I am playing against a lot of Division I players."

Including Warheit and Ordy, 14 of the 25 players on the Blue Sox roster are from the state, including 11 who played baseball in the WPIAL. Two other local players, Brian Billigen and Brian Youchak, are the top two offensive prospects on the Blue Sox roster.

Billigen, a 2008 Bishop Canevin graduate and a rising sophomore at Cornell University, hit better than .400 during his freshman year at Cornell and he hit .315 from the leadoff spot and started in center field for the Blue Sox.

"He has power from the left side of the plate and he is still going to develop," Wuerfel said.

"His greatest tool is speed. He is probably one of the fastest guys in the league. In terms of a true raw prospect, he is probably that guy."

Playing at Cornell, Billigen is a five-hour drive from home but now playing in Butler, it is only a 45-minute drive for his parents coming from Carnegie.

Youchak, the other top hitting prospect, is a former first-team Division III All-American at Johns Hopkins and he bats third for the Blue Sox. A 5-foot-7 right fielder, he is a Vincentian Academy graduate and a Shaler resident. He graduated from Johns Hopkins in the spring but has another year of eligibility and plans on returning to play baseball and pursue a master's degree.

"This league gives you a different perspective," Youchak said. "It is like a minor league atmosphere with road trips to Indiana and Illinois, taking 10-hour bus drives. It is tough on the body playing the next day after the long bus trip, but you just have to play hard."

With Billigen at Cornell and Youchak returning to Johns Hopkins, Trich quipped that the Blue Sox might not have the highest batting average in the league but they probably have the highest SAT scores.

Another prospect on the Red Sox is shortstop Jacke Healey. Wuerfel said Healey, a slender 6-3 right-hander, has room to fill out and that his defensive play is professional caliber already. Healey is originally from Tunkhannock, Pa., and after being named a junior college All-American at Potomac State in West Virginia, transferred to Youngstown State.

Wuerfel and Trich also added a local coach to the staff. Glenn Sharrar, a Seneca Valley graduate, filled the role of pitching coach this season.