The Butler County American Legion baseball league has offered its players many positive experiences on the field.

A quartet of players received a memorable one off of it Friday night.

Saxonburg’s Garrett Traggiai, Cranberry Township’s Brandon Lynd and Meridian’s Justin Rickert and Nick Malis each received a $1,000 scholarship prior to Friday evening’s all-star game at Kelly Automotive Park.

“It’s a great honor,” said Lynd. “I’ve been playing baseball since I was 5-years old. This just shows you what can happen if you keep working hard.”

The league takes a portion of each team’s sign-up fees to account for the scholarship money.

To be a viable candidate for the scholarship, a player must have already graduated from high school and must have played in the league every year he was eligible. He also had to turn in an essay on what his participation in the league has meant to him.

“I wrote about how I’ve been able to incorporate baseball into other aspects of my life,” said Lynd, who is headed to Indiana (Pa.) University next month. “For my senior project (at Seneca Valley), I put together a car cruise that benefitted the Miracle League in Cranberry. That league helps kids with physical or mental disabilities play baseball. This sport has impacted me in so many positive ways.”

Malis is a sophomore at Penn State Altoona and plans to transfer to the main campus starting with his junior year. While he still has one season left to play in college, his days of playing in the BCAL are winding down.

“My experience playing legion baseball has been unreal,” he said. “I’ve made so many friends and memories. It will be one of the hardest things for me to hang up my cleats after this season.”

Rickert also is in his stretch run of playing in the league. He loves baseball and everything it offers.

“The atmosphere of the game, the mentality of the game, it has always appealed to my mind-set,” said Rickert, who plays for Robert Morris University’s club team. “I’ve never disliked anything about it.”

Traggiai learned of the BCAL scholarship program last summer when teammate Jordan Hickey was one of the recipients.

“I think legion baseball has done a lot for the county and it’s nice for them to give this to the players,” said Traggiai, a sophomore at Penn State Behrend. “There’s a lot of great people involved who can teach you things along the way. How to work with a team and not be afraid of new experiences, those are abilities you can use in daily life, not just baseball.”

Rickert began playing for Meridian when he was 15 and was the scholarship program’s leading vote-getter this year. He likes the direction the BCAL has taken.

“The addition of Valley and Kiski over the last few years has added a whole different dimension,” he said. “Those teams have a lot of high school players and it has improved the quality of the league.

“A lot of credit goes to the coaches with all the hours they put in.”