The school districts of Center and Monaca will merge after the 2009-2010 school year.

Baseball players at the two schools have already experienced a merger, but in a different form.

"Center and Monaca have been merged for American Legion baseball for a long time," said Chris Wagner, manager of Center-Monaca Legion Post 580. "It's been at least 15 years and it's worked fine."

This year's Center-Monaca Legion team is doing better than fine. Wagner's squad placed third in the Beaver County League and advanced to the semifinals of the league playoffs with a pair of victories against Brighton Township, 10-2 on Monday and 6-1 on Tuesday.

"Our goal coming into the season was to place among the top four during the regular season and we did one better by finishing in the top three," Wagner said. "It's been four years since we've been to the semifinals. We're looking forward to the huge challenge of facing Hopewell."

Hopewell earned its semifinal berth with a pair of victories against Ambridge. The best-of-three semifinal between Center-Monaca (12-7) and Hopewell is scheduled to begin tomorrow at 5:30 p.m., with the first game at Hopewell High School's Joe Colella Field. The second game will take place Sunday at Center High School, also at 5:30 p.m.

"Hopewell is loaded," Wagner said. "It will be a tough matchup for us, but we did beat them once [in three times] during the regular season. That was the first time we beat Hopewell in four years."

Wagner has 14 players on his squad, 11 from Center and three from Monaca.

"Six played for us last year, while the other eight are first-year Legion players," Wagner said. "We also have four kids we have listed as dual roster players from our Pony and Colt league teams."

In honor of the upcoming merger, Center-Monaca has adopted the school colors of the eventual merger.

"We felt it was appropriate to change to the new school colors: navy and Columbia," Wagner said. "Columbia is also referred to as Carolina blue, because it's the same color as North Carolina's light blue."

Center-Monaca's roster includes two players who participated in the WPIAL Class AA-A All-Star Game, which took place June 14. Center fielder Alex Filippi and first baseman Cory Wagner were chosen to play for the Class AA squad.

"Alex will be playing baseball at Penn State Beaver next year," Wagner said. "My son, Cory, will be playing at Clarion. Alex had two hits in the all-star game. Cory, a lefty, got off to a slow start, but is now hitting .393."

The other four players back from last year's squad are left fielder Chad Tokarski, third baseman Michael Guarascio, outfielder Gabe Letteri and pitcher Kevin Urtz. Tokarski leads the team with a .414 average. Guarascio leads with five home runs.

"Kevin graduated from Center last year and is now pitching at Seton Hill University," Wagner said. "Chad is one of our three Monaca players. He caught for the high school team, but its playing in the outfield for us."

Guarascio, Letteri and Tokarski are recent high school graduates. Guarascio will be playing at Thiel College next season.

"We've been using Kevin as our closer," Wagner said. "He has a 1-1 record and four saves."

The other two players from Monaca are middle infielders Brandon Schultz and Daryn DeFelice. Both will be seniors.

Urtz is joined on the mound by Johnny Rossi (4-1), Derek Puhalla (3-2) and Logan Urtz (3-2), Kevin's younger brother. Puhalla has a .368 average at the plate.

"Derek will be a senior at Center next year," Wagner said. "Johnny and Logan will be juniors."

The catcher is Zeke Nowakowski, a senior who has a .362 average and two home runs.

The other two members of Wagner's squad are center fielder Josh Garrett and second baseman/shortstop Drew Hulme. Hulme, a lefty, boasts a .341 average.