The Niverville Panthers have joined the Zone 13 High School Baseball League which starts it's second season next week.

"It's awesome to see the league growing," said convener Justin Hart of Green Valley School in Grunthal. "Having eight teams actually allows us to split into two pools and have a South Division and a North Division. We'll play a round robin and get our rankings for zone's. It helps to make everything just a little bit more competitive."

The South Division will include Green Valley, Niverville, Ecole St. Joachim from La Broquerie and Steinbach Regional Secondary School.

The Pirates, Panthers, Braves and defending champion Sabres will play their baseball games in Mitchell.

Lorette, Ste. Anne, Edward Schreyer School in Beausejour and Gabrielle Roy of Ile des Chenes make up the North Division.

The Scorpions, Lynx, Barons and Les Roy will play in Blumenort and Ile des Chenes.

"Year one we got it off the ground and worked through a format where we did some interlocking doubleheaders," Hart said. "This year we're expanding on it and working to make it better. With another team coming in, it's nice to have the two pools and be able to run a full round robin. Before we just had some exhibition games here and there. Teams organized their own exhibition games and now to have a league, everybody gets to see everybody at some point. The top four teams will go through to the "A" side of our zone and they get to battle it out for our championship."

Teams will play three regular season games against teams in their own division.

The top two teams in each division advance to the "A" side while the bottom two in each division will play in the consolation draw.

The Provincial High School Baseball Championship will take place June 1st, 2nd & 3rd in Altona.