CRANBERRY TWP — Simply put, this was a celebration.

The Miracle League of Southwestern Pa., based in Cranberry Township’s Graham Park, celebrated its 15th season on Saturday by hosting its second All-Star Game weekend. The first was in 2018.

This organization, founded by Mike and Chris Sherry in 2009, provides a totally flat artificial field for children and adults with special needs to enjoy baseball, run the bases and score runs in front of friends and family.

The Sherrys have a daughter — Jordan, 19, — with special needs.

“My wife is the true founder of our league,” said Mike Sherry, President and Founder of the league. “We were sitting at the dinner table one night talking and she said, ”You know, we need to do this.’

“A plaque recognizing her as the founder is going up on the the third base dugout tonight to match the plaque recognizing me on the first base dugout.”

The Miracle League of Southwestern Pa. began with 110 players and one league 15 years ago. Today, it has 225 players in the ages 8-18 league, 80 players comprising four teams in the Under-18 youth league, 32 players comprising two teams in the advanced league and 160 players comprising eight teams in the adult league.

Miracle League players from Cranberry Township, Murrysville, Altoona, Indiana, South Hills, Moon Township Wheeling, Morgantown and Bradenton (Fla.) participated in Saturday’s festivities. All of these organizations are supported by Pirate Charities.

A Pittsburgh Pirates Fantasy Camp took place Saturday morning with 14 members of the Pirates — including manager Derek Shelton and active players Rich Hill, David Bednar, Liover Peguero, Nick Gonzales, Jared Triolo and Colin Holderman — working with 44 Miracle League athletes.

“I can’t say enough about Pirate Charities,” Sherry said. “This isn’t about writing a check. The Pirates have always been all-in on this. They come up here every year.”

A home run derby took place at noon, with 11 Miracle League athletes competing. Clayton Elsesser, 30, of Saxonburg hit four homers to win the event, which was run by former Pirates Matt Capps and Michael McKenry.

“Clayton is so proud of the trophy he got for that,” his mother, Robin Elsesser, said. “He’s been in this league for years now,. It’s helped him tremendously in terms of socializing and assimilating well with others.

“Everyone is so supportive here. It’s phenomenal.”

Three exhibition games preceded the All-Star Game itself. Cranberry had 14 players — Isaiah Barton, Liam Wallace, Jack Roberts, Jayne Mayes, Delaney Acklin, Jordan Sherry, Ian Orbich, Max Lauer, Kyle Gibson, Josh Hefner, Ella Weisbord, Dakota Totsky, Luke Recker and Dominic Rizzi — participate in the game.

“We base our choices on tenure, seniority ... it’s pretty subjective,” Sherry said. “We want new players, other than ones who may have participated five years ago, to experience this.

“It’s important to us to have some athletes who have to use a walker or a wheelchair to participate ... We want to show what we’re all about, that anybody can play baseball.”

And become friends as well.

“We have four players who have been in the league 15 years and have been teammates with each other the entire time,” Miracle League vice president Kevin Delaney said. “They’ve become best friends with each other. Their families all know each other well. A lot of networking goes on here.

“The players are always meeting new friends. This league helps their communication skills.”

Harold Hicks is president of the Miracle League based in Murrysville. He became president of the Rotary Club there in 2005 and decided to build a Miracle League complex and form a league as a project.

It took the 42-member club seven years to raise $2.35 million through grants and donations to get the complex completed and the league going.

“We had 46 players when we started in 2012 and have 176 now, ages 5 tyo 71,” Hicks said. “We do an indoor clinic during the winter and we’ve added a court so the players can learn soccer, dek hockey, basketball and other sports.

“I love this setting here, where all of our leagues can get together, bounce ideas off each other and grow together. This is extremely worthwhile to everyone.”

Hicks is now working on a project of developing an independent living facility for adults with special needs. There are 80 adults ages 18-71 involved in a “Rotaract” program that teaches them leadership skills.

“This goes far beyond baseball,” Hicks said.

But it all starts with baseball.

Conlor Delaney, 26, has been a “buddy” — one who assists a player on the field — since the Miracle League of Southwestern Pa. was formed.

“Sometimes a player will pick you out of a crowd and say, ‘you are my buddy now.’ With some, you become glued at the hip,” he said. “Spending one or two hours on a Saturday, come out here and see all of the smiles and excitement in the players’ faces is more than worth it.

“It’s about everybody coming together on the diamond.”

Elsesser agreed.

“Everyone, at least once in their life, should come out and watch a Miracle League game,” she said.