Moose Jaw Little League will be back on the diamonds soon, according to league president Tony Dreger.

Phase 4.1 of the re-open Saskatchewan plan starts Monday, and Dreger said the league will start practices July 6th once they get the teams picked. Those teams will be selected and schedules should be out by July 3.

“And them in phase 4, step 2, whenever that comes in, we’ll have already a scheduled season already in place,” said Dreger. “When we’re allowed to do so, we’ll just put that in place and roll forward. We’re excited for it, and we’re excited for the kids. Evidently there’s going to be some changes with social distancing and things like that but we’re going to work through that and make the opportunity the best for the kids.”

One of the new twists for the season is there will be no dugouts, as players will need to be six feet apart when not playing. “We’ll have to separate and put the kids’ bags on the fences six feet apart, so when they come in and off the field, they’ll go to their bag so they will be six feet apart from their fellow players. There’s no going out to the mound to have mound visits, there’s no going to the plate to have umpire visits, so it will be a little bit different.”

He said that they'll still be able to hit, throw and catch and have fun playing baseball, which is a lot better than nothing. “We just have to keep in mind, that unfortunately, it’s not like all the other previous years where there are playoffs and provincials and traveling, we can’t do that. We have to stay internal,” said Dreger. “We’ve got to stay within Moose Jaw, but at least we can have some games, and some scrimmages, and at least have the kids, talking back and forth and having a little bit of fun on the field.”

Anyone interested in registering can go to mjlittleleague.com. Registrations will be open until Thursday.