Ashland is a baseball / softball community supported by local businesses and taught by skilled professionals as well as volunteers.  From the time a child is 4 years old, he or she can step onto a baseball or softball diamond, learn to throw, hit, slide, and, most importantly, have fun and not get off that diamond until they have graduated from Ashland High School.    Just ask Ian Kendall who recently signed with the Tampa Bay Rays as he graduated from Ashland High School after first playing through the Ashland Little League program.

Being part of the Ashland baseball / softball community, the Ashland Little League has developed ties with the Ashland High School baseball program, the Ashland Youth Baseball League, the women’s’ Amateur Softball Association (ASA), and the softball program at Southern Oregon University.  Together we are working toward an integrated supportive network where girls and boys can have fun playing ball while also developing their skills.  We encourage all our players once they have completed our divisions to join one of these local baseball and softball programs.

As an example of how these relationships can actually help a Little League player’s development, Don Senestraro ,the Ashland High School’s baseball manager, and his coaching staff worked with our volunteers this past fall to hold a free baseball clinic each Wednesday.  Over 55 players went through this program learning from these coaches who spend much of their year developing our local high school ball players. This spring the SOU women’s softball coaches and players will join members from the ASA and the Little League to have a softball clinic for our young players.

The Little League is also working with the Ashland Youth Baseball League, which manages the 7^th and 8^th grade baseball teams, to schedule players who are in their last year of Little League to practice and play at least one game with the 7^th grade team this season.  This will give our players a sense of what it is like to play baseball in the next stage of their skill development.

Other Little Leagues in this valley may have the population to offer junior and senior divisions of baseball and softball.  If players find that either the Ashland Youth League or the Amateur Softball Association is not for them, they can contact the Little League District office at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to see if they can be placed on a team in another league playing in these older divisions.

We hope that players who matriculate from our league continue to play baseball and softball for years to come and have fun doing so.

Resources:

Ashland Youth Baseball League

Phone: 858-735-7873

Fax: 541-482-2324

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Amateur Softball Association

541-951-5911

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Ashland High School Baseball

Website: http://www.ashland.k12.or.us/page.asp?navid=536

Ashland High School Softball

Website: http://www.ashland.k12.or.us/Page.asp?NavID=543

Southern Oregon University Softball

Website: http://souraiders.com/index.aspx?tab=softball&path=softball

Little League District Junior and Senior Softball

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