Jesse Izzo of Lake Placid pitches for the Saranac Lake Surge during a game in July 2023. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

SARANAC LAKE — In an area dominated by winter sports and ski resorts, baseball is rising. That’s at least what three hearty locals believe.

This summer, the Plattsburgh-based Champlain Valley Baseball League will venture south and into the Tri-Lakes region.

Saranac Lake will have two teams, which include the Essex County Expos and the Saranac Lake Merchants — which may be changed to the Ray Brook Larry’s, according to its organizer. Meanwhile, Lake Placid will have the Lake Placid Brewers.

It’ll be the first time that Saranac Lake has had a CVBL team since 1999. Lake Placid last had one in 2023, under the Adirondack Lightning.

“I think it’s great for the Tri-Lakes; the more baseball the better,” said Expos organizer Brady Roberts.

The CVBL has been around since 1971, and has had dozens of teams over the years. Along with the three from the Tri-Lakes, the league will include the newly-formed Eastern Eagles based out Saranac, as well as two returning teams — the 4th Ward Cardinals of Plattsburgh and the Lyon Mountain Miners.

Lake Placid Brewers organizer Jesse Izzo, who has been competing in the league nearly every year since 2020, was glad to see that CVBL is expanding down to the Tri-Lakes. He added that there may even be room to grow down here.

“I think if we can manage to keep these teams alive for a couple of years, I could totally see a Tupper Lake team eventually,” he said.

Izzo said that the CVBL Opening Day is slated to take place on May 18 in Lake Placid. He said all six teams are going to play at the school-owned North Elba Show Grounds baseball fields.

“Were going to make it like an event with concessions and community day-type thing,” Izzo said. “That’s my goal for right now. The league was OK with that happening.”

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The start

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Roberts has always wanted to coach a Saranac Lake baseball team, but the 19-year-old SUNY Canton baseball player didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

The 19-year-old recently suffered an arm injury, leaving him sidelined for his sophomore season, and for the next few months, he couldn’t stay away from the sport entirely this summer.

“This is sort of something I wanted to put together while I was injured,” he said. “I have a lot of people that I know that play baseball in the area and play on several college teams that were willing to come play. When I get older, I plan on coming back to Saranac Lake as a teacher and a baseball coach, so it’s just kind of getting my foot in the door a little bit with this stuff.”

For the past couple of years, Mark Gillis has been in charge of the Saranac Lake Mudcats, a 16U travel baseball team. Gillis has been involved in the Saranac Lake Youth Baseball and Softball Association, having been the organization’s president for around 10 years, but recently he’s begun to realize that there’s not a local league nearby for kids older than 16.

“Once you start to reach that 17, 18-year age, there’s not much out there for baseball unless you want to travel to Canada every other week,” he said. “There’s a few opportunities, but not many. The last couple of years, I’ve always been thinking about ‘What is the next step?’ or ‘Is there a next step?'”

While traveling with the Mudcats, one of Gillis’ catchers was approached about possibly playing for the Lyon Mountain CVBL team.

“Then it clicked, ‘Why don’t we just do our own Champlain Valley team?'” he said.

After talking with the CVBL, Gillis said he kept the idea of the team under wraps until everything was confirmed.

“But the next thing I know, Brady has his own team. I was like ‘Man, I was hoping Brady was going to be one of my pitchers,'” Gillis joked.

After playing a season with the 4th Ward Cardinals, Izzo didn’t have a CVBL team for the upcoming season. Gillis had reached out to him to see if he’d want to play.

“I was like ‘maybe I’ll play there, it’s closer to home,'” Izzo said. “Then I was like, ‘Why don’t I ask around, and what if I find enough kids? Could I make a team here?'”

Izzo, who has coached modified baseball at Lake Placid and has helped out part-time with the school’s varsity team, began asking around to see if there was any interest. And it turns out there was.

“All of a sudden I had like 18 guys that wanted to play,” he said. “So I was like ‘wow, I can definitely do this.'”

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Rosters

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Over the past few years, the Lake Placid varsity baseball team has been one of the top teams in the Mountain Valley Athletic Conference, having won five sectional titles since 2013. So for Izzo, who was a standout player for the school, he knew there was a group of high-quality players from Lake Placid that could play for his Brewers’ team.

“A few are from the high school, but not many,” he said. “A lot of them are from my grade, and a couple of the grades below me. It’s a wide demographic of ages in terms of the younger crowd here, and I think it’ll be a fun year.”

As someone who has played in CVBL for nearly five seasons, Izzo said the league is a lot more competitive than people might think.

“I know 20 to 30 years ago it was one of the better leagues in New York state just for baseball,” he said. “It’s a little different now because there’s a younger crowd and there’s a lot of college kids that just play in it during the summer because they’re home. So the competition is mixed, but it makes the competition that much more interesting because one day you might face somebody that pitched in college at a really high level and the other day you might face just a guy that went to high school here 10 years ago, you never know.”

The Expos are made up of 18 different players from all over the Tri-Lakes and surrounding areas, according to Roberts. His players include a mix of local talent from the NCAA level to current varsity baseball players.

“Most of the guys on the team are guys that I either played with in high school or I know them pretty well or played against them,” Roberts said. “I kind of picked the best talent in the area, in my opinion. I tried to make the best team I could, and that’s what the roster reflects.”

Gillis’ team is on the younger side, with most of his players still in high school. But there are a few older players on the team, who are around 27 or 28 years old.

“Just randomly, some older kids reach out to me that are looking to play ball,” he said.

Gillis said what’s cool about this league is that it allows for people to continue playing after high school is done. He said there was a high school senior who was unable to play on the varsity team last season because of an injury, but this summer he’ll get a shot at playing on the diamond.

Gillis said he was still looking for players, as of last week. He said those interested should reach out to the CVBL Facebook page or its website to get in contact with him.

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The work

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Kickstarting a new baseball team is a lot harder than it seems. Robert said it’s taken a lot of work to do, but he’s had a lot of support in doing it.

“From the local businesses and several players’ parents have helped me with fundraising and other fundraising events and things like that,” he said. “There’s certainly a lot that goes into it. You’re looking at uniforms, umpire pay, a place to play and then making the schedule.”

In total, Roberts has gathered support — in the form of a sponsorship — from 14 different businesses. The Expos and Gillis’ team were also approved to play their games on the Petrova Field, after receiving the OK from the Saranac Lake Central School District.

“Brady has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us in Saranac Lake,” Gillis said. “Him and I have probably had six to eight conversations over the last couple of months, making sure that we’ve been on the same page player-wise and field-wise.”

Roberts credited Seamus Lewis for helping out, as well as SLYBSA President Chris Knight and Saranac Lake’s varsity baseball coach Bryan Munn.

“Those guys are really big baseball advocates,” Roberts said. “Bryan has done a really nice job with the varsity program and rejuvenating Saranac Lake. And Chris Knight, who is the president of the Saranac Lake Youth Baseball and Softball organization, he’s done a fantastic job with that league and promoting Little League Baseball.”

Izzo said the progress he’s put into making the Brewers has been shaping up to be a little bit easier than he thought, especially since the league has been helping him out.

“They want to expand — so they’re helping us as much as they can,” he said. “The school is backing me on this. They’re OK with it happening, so I have the use of the fields. Really, once you find the field, you have to find a way to get jerseys for people and pay the umpires. That’s really the two biggest things.”

Roberts has also already been playing out games in Saranac Lake, and he’s hoping it brings out a decent crowd.

“We’re actually hosting a tournament in honor of Richard Zerahn, who was a long-time teacher and baseball coach in Saranac Lake, and we’re bringing four teams to that tournament,” he said. “I think it’s going to be great. I’ve received great feedback from the community, and a lot of people are excited to see this happen and I’m looking forward to it.”