ST. CLAIRSVILLE — It’s strike three for the Ohio American Legion baseball season for the summer of 2020.

One month ago, the American Legion Baseball canceled eight regional tournaments across the nation and ensuing World Series set for Shelby, N.C. However, each state was in charge of how it wanted to deal with its respective state tournament. That all changed last week.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that schools across the Buckeye State would remain closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Ohio High School Athletic Association soon after silenced the high school baseball season with the added stipulation that high school facilities remain closed until further notice.

With that said, officials with the Ohio American Legion baseball opted to cancel the season due to many teams using high school complexes for their games. St. Clairsville Post 159 wouldn’t be affected by that as its home field — Memorial Park — is under the direction of the the city of St. Clairsville and Richland Township which supplement the funding, with in-kind assistance as needed.

“It’s the second big blow to these kids. First they lose their high school season, which to some was their senior campaign, and then this,” St. Clairsville Post 159 manager Mike Muklewicz said. “There was a glimmer of hope that we were going to play. That got the kids hopes up only to have them shot down by the recent announcement.

“It’s an unfortunate situation. These kids have taken a couple big blows to their morales.”

Al Beavers, founder of Beavers Field in Lancaster was the state tournament has been held in recent years, was obviously disappointed with the news.

“It is very disappointing,” Beavers told the Lancaster Eagle. “We changed the season to try and at least get the state tournament in. The American Legion was letting each state play their own tournament and our state commissioner’s recommendation was to play it later if they opened things up.

“Unfortunately, they decided over the weekend they were going to cancel the whole season.”

Muklewicz hinted that the season might not be over just yet, however. He had been in contact with a couple of other local legion coaches about forming an independent league.

“A couple of us die-hard baseball guys have tossed a couple of ideas around,” he noted. “We just want the kids to have a chance at playing some baseball this summer. But, we also understand it has to be done in a safe manner.”

One big issue would be insurance, whether it covers all the teams involved or team-by-team, he mentioned.

For now it’s just a waiting game.