The ball rockets off the bat, headed for the outfield wall. The left fielder turns and runs to head off the ball, making a beautiful diving catch in the outfield grass.

All normal for a typical Terrapin baseball game at Shipley Field. Except the Terps weren’t on the field – the College Park Bombers were.

For the past 19 years, College Park has been home to a team called the College Park Bombers, a team in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League, the only league in the Washington area to use wooden bats rather than the metal bats used in the NCAA.

The league hosts seven area teams. However, there is a small twist – No team can have more than four players from the same university. As a result, many of the players on the roster hail from outside of Maryland. This season’s roster includes three current Terps: outfielders Brandon Mise and A.J. Casario and pitcher Brett Jones.

On the Bombers’ roster, there are no fewer than 21 players who attend an out-of-state school, one even hailing from California. Among them is K.C. Warden, a senior at Ohio Dominican who plays the outfield and is a designated hitter for the Bombers.

Players are set up with host families who are not necessarily directly involved with the team, but live in the area. Warden lives in Rockville with his host family, commuting to practices and games in College Park.

Players come from around the country to enhance their skills and work toward playing in the major leagues. Major league scouts typically attend games to look at future players, and the key lies in the wooden bats.

“The scouts come out to the games to see who can hit with wood because anyone can hit with an aluminum bat,” said head coach Gene Bovello.

A wooden bat has about 6 inches of “sweet spot,” whereas with a metal bat, a batter can muscle the ball into the outfield even if he just hits it off the handle. With a wooden bat, the bat will break with a hit off the handle. This is critical because major league scouts want to gauge which hitters will make the smoothest transition from college to the major leagues.

Ryan Moorer, a former Terp and Bomber, will try to make the transition this year after being drafted in the 12th round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Seattle Mariners. Bovello said he thinks it was a combination of playing for both the Terps and the Bombers that gave Moorer an edge over his competitors.

Warden said college coaches want their players to play in the best summer league possible because when good athletes play against other good athletes, the level of competition increases.

The Bombers also attract many younger baseball players to their games. When youth league players come to a game wearing their uniforms, they can get in for free. On Monday, the Olney Pirates, a club team from Olney, Md., attended the game.

In a time when baseball and softball clubs are becoming more competitive and recruiting better, more talented athletes, many Bombers fans see the importance in bringing young players to watch older players play the game. Bombers pitching coach John McGowan has a son on the Pirates and often brings his son to watch the Bombers. McGowan said he brings his son not so much to learn technique, but to watch how the older players learn from their mistakes.

“I think it’s imperative that kids get out there and see it and feel it,” McGowan said.

However, the players aren’t the only ones to benefit from this league – the College Park area does as well.

When the Bombers hosted their home opener at Shipley Field on Sunday against the Bethesda Big Train, a large turnout of 258 fans filled the stands. The game was truly an event for the entire family, with contests between innings like a dizzy bat competition, sack races and a mini-golf game.

College Park Mayor Stephen Brayman, along with former College Park city council member and current state Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk, threw out the ceremonial first pitches. Brayman made a valiant effort, but the ball bounced in the dirt before home plate.

Brayman admitted he had been cut from his high school’s junior varsity baseball team.

“I just wanted to sting the catcher’s hand,” he said. “It was an honor.”

Contact reporter Patsy Morrow at sports@dbk.umd.edu.