League organizers looking at potential for fall schedule

SOUTH NEW BERLIN – The 2020 Otsenango PONY League season is the latest of the summer sports activities that have been postponed or canceled.

The league’s president Eileen Lawyer made the announcement with an email sent to all coaches and those involved with the organization of the summer program Wednesday morning.

“It is with much sadness that we share with you the decision we have made to cancel the 2020 summer Otsenango PONY League program,” said Lawyer in the email. “This will be the first time in over 50 years that we have not had a summer baseball program.”

With safety for all being the first priority, Lawyer added that the use of the high school athletic facilities the teams usually play at will likely not become available for June and July. “As New York continues to re-open and more details have become available, we do not foresee having access to the locations,” she said.

The Otsenango PONY League is currently comprised of 18 teams from both Otsego and Chenango Counties with players between the ages of 13-15 years old. However, Lawyer and the rest of the league board of discussed the potential of organizing a fall league with the current age group as well as an older division.

If there is enough interest to play in the fall, the Otsenango PONY League season would start the weekend after Labor Day and games would be played on Saturday or Sunday for six weeks.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Norwich, Greene and Bainbridge-Guilford coaches stated they are interested in the fall schedule for both age groups.