The Santa Clara Baseball League's Season starts tonight across Southern Manitoba. 4 games are on the docket, including the Portage Padres hosting the Austin A's. The Padres finished the 2015 regular season with a 9-2-1 record, good enough for second place. Padres' Player Coach Tyler Butler says there wasn't much turn around in the roster.

"I think we'll be as strong, if not stronger. There really hasn't been a lot of change that we've made to our line-up -- we've added a couple of guys -- but I think we're going to be a very similar team."

Padres' pitchers Jason Kirkland and Kyle Hamilton will be returning to the mound this season. Butler says they're set on the mound.

Butler

"Rod McLeod's back this year to do some throwing, as well as (Daylan) Laramee will do some throwing. There are some guys that don't throw too much, but they can definitely throw. So we shouldn't lack in the pitching department this year."

The Padre's had to turn away several midget players this preseason, as they didn't have any room left on the roster. Butler says because of that they're expecting a tougher team tonight.

"We kind of made the recommendation that they contact Austin, because they're looking for players. So they have 5 kids that have been playing ball for over a month now on their team, so they're a lot more competitive this year."

The Padres and A's go at 7 p.m. at Rotary Republic Park. Get there early to see the debut of the Padres' new logo.