The Oilers, under first-year manager Mike Threehouse will host its first PGCBL game the next day (May 30) against the Tarp Skunks.

According to a release from the PGCBL, “The 2026 PGCBL regular season concludes on Sunday, July 26th. The next day, the semi-finals round will be played, with each division playing a game between the top seed and the #4 seed, and a game between the #2 and #3 seeds. The winners advance to the Division finals, a one-game playoff on Tuesday, July 28th. The Division champions will play a best-of-three series between Wednesday, July 29th and Friday, July 30th to determine the league champion, with locations and dates to be finalized for the championship series by participating teams and the league office.”

To see the full schedule of the Oilers and the rest of the PGCBL, check here: https://pgcbl.com/composite

The former St. Bonaventure baseball player and long-time softball coach is set to lead the Oilers into the future and according to team president Matthew Fidurko, they could not be more thrilled he said yes.

“We think Mike Threehouse was the perfect candidate,” Fidurko said. “He checks a lot of boxes. First, what we were looking for in our first head coach going into the Perfect Game League was a local connection. We want people in the community to be connected to our coaches and ‘House’ definitely checks that box. He is an ingrained member of our community through-and-through. He grew up in Olean, went to school at St. Bonaventure, coached at St. Bonaventure and helps run the Twin Tiers Academy. We were also looking for someone that had his personality. When you’re coaching summer baseball, it’s not as much about the day-to-day instruction. It’s about managing a group of people. You’ve got to keep 35 players interested for two months. It’s a grind, it’s a grueling schedule, and House has that background, has that ability to lead a group in a very player-centric way.”

Threehouse will help the Oilers navigate their first season in the PGCBL after having been a member of the New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL) since 2012. As Fidurko noted, the Oilers wanted someone with strong ties to the community to lead them into the unknown and they are excited for what the future has in store with ‘House’ at the helm.

“We’re trying to make this the community’s team,” Fidurko said. “The team is a part of the community, and having (Threehouse) as the head coach is just super important. We want people to feel a connection to our head coach and to our team and everybody in town knows who House is. He’s respected, he’s well liked, he’s well loved and we could not be more excited for the future of the Olean Oilers with Mike Threehouse.”

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.”