Clovis awarded SWL franchise

The Southwestern League, a Class A independent league baseball circuit, has approved Clovis for one of its two expansion franchises for the 2005 season, according to a league press release.

The SWL will operate with four teams this summer, three of them in New Mexico — Alamogordo, Las Cruces and Roswell. The other team will be based in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso.

The other expansion franchise next year called the Quad City Kings, a combination previous teams based in Bisbee, Douglas and Sierra Vista, Ariz., and Canbanea, Sonora, Mexico.

The four clubs will each play 54 games each this year, with the season running from May 28 to July 28.

Kim Cavabatsos, who resides in San Jose, Calif., will be the majority stockholder of the Clovis franchise.

“We feel that Clovis is a great spot for a baseball team,” he said. “It fits in with our expansion plan of one team (to the) west and one to the east.”

Cavabatsos said he would like to have two of the existing teams travel to Clovis to play a preseason game this spring. He added that the league hopes to use a city-funded park scheduled to be built near the Clovis High School softball field, on Martin Luther King Blvd.