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Jamestown Tarp Skunks’ baseball league cancels entire 2020 season

In conjunction with Perfect Game USA, Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) President Robert Julian announced on Wednesday the cancellation of the 2020 season.

This includes the newly-named Jamestown Tarp Skunks team out of Diethrick Park in Jamestown, N.Y.

“It is with sadness, but a recognition of the health reality we face as a state and a nation, that the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League will not commence or play its 2020 season,” Julian said. “We recognize this is a great disappointment to our collegiate players, to our fans, our host communities, and the dedicated staff and owners who have spent so much of their lives making the league a vibrant part of collegiate baseball and the American baseball fabric. The dynamic of this crisis requires cancellation.”

Perfect Game founder and president, Jerry Ford, stated, “The primary importance is for the health and safety of all concerned in this geographic area. As the naming sponsor of the PGCBL, we support Mr. Julian’s and the owners’ decision to cancel play for the 2020 season. While disappointed that baseball won’t be played in the PGCBL this summer, we recognize the significant barriers with housing, player travel to Upstate New York and between cities, and other factors the league faces that Perfect Game doesn’t face, as other areas of the country reopen for play later this spring and summer.”

Julian stated, “We have engaged in watchful waiting in the hope we could commence play on either May 29 or on a later date, but we are now persuaded that the likelihood and probability of either option is low to non-existent. We understand that the issues faced by our state and local governments create unsurmountable hurdles that prevent us from safely playing.”

Julian concluded, “We look forward to the 2021 season. In 2021, we will provide special access to our games to first responders, health care workers and provides, and essential workers in appreciation for their efforts on behalf of our communities. We will announce in the future our detailed plan to honor these special people.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back when it is safe!,” was the message posted on the Jamestown Jammers (Tarp Skunks) Facebook page early Wednesday evening. “… We worked hard — but will continue to do so for you and the rest of J-town. Let’s all get through this together.”

About the PGCBL

The Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League is a 13-team summer collegiate baseball league in upstate New York. Since its inaugural season in 2011, the PGCBL – which annually draws talent from some of the best NCAA, NAIA, and junior college programs – has quickly evolved into the premier wood bat league in the state of New York, while becoming one of the most widely respected summer leagues in the country. The PGCBL is affiliated with Perfect Game USA, the nation’s largest independent amateur scouting bureau.

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