OLEAN — The Olean Oilers will officially join the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) ahead of the 2026 season.
The move will make the Oilers the 16th team in the PGCBL, and officially brings an end to the franchise’s stint in the New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL).
The Oilers’ tenure in the NYCBL was a successful one, winning back-to-back championship titles in 2015 and 2016 and reaching the championship game in 2023. But according to team President Matthew Fidurko, after considering a league move prior to last season, the team is now ready for a change of scenery.
“We just thought the timing was right, it was something we had explored last year, we actually received an offer from (Perfect Game) last year and turned it down, respectfully, but now we feel like it is just the right time,” Fidurko said. “We appreciate our time in the NYCBL, but we are ready for a new challenge and feel like the Perfect Game league is really strong. The future is strong in that league, and we are proud to be joining the teams that are in that league.”
According to its website, the PGCBL “was founded in the fall of 2010 by eight summer baseball teams located across upstate New York in conjunction with Perfect Game USA, baseball’s largest scouting service.” The league is broken down into an Eastern and Western conference and currently has teams as far northwest as Niagara and southeast as Saugerties.
“We’re super excited, we could not be more excited for the challenge,” Fidurko said. “It’s a bigger league and we’re really excited to prove that we belong in the league, just like we proved that we belonged in the NYCBL for all those years. This is thanks to the work of a lot of people and we are excited to bring this to Olean. You look at the names of the cities involved in Perfect Game, they’re all the cities you want to be associated with in New York State. Niagara Falls, Batavia, Elmira, Olean now belongs in that class of cities that have a team like this.”
