Could a new “pipeline” be headed to New Iberia?

Very possibly, according to a baseball executive and Tony Migues, New Iberia’s director of parks and recreation.

The South Louisiana Pipeliners, a minor league baseball team based in Morgan City, is looking for a permanent home and New Iberia is one of the cities being considered by the team.

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“We are an independent ballclub put together to form a pipeline into the major leagues,” said Chad Bourgeois, general manager of the team. “We put this together about three months ago, and this is the first year that we are playing.”

The Pipeliners play in the Continental League, which is a group of professional, independent baseball franchises founded in 2006 that includes the Alexandria Aces, Big Bend Cowboys (Alpine, Texas), Coastal Kingfish (Houston), Bay Area Toros (League City, Texas) and Texarkana Gunslingers.

Bourgeois said the Pipeliners are a travel team, meaning they have no permanent home right now but the team is associated with South Louisiana Sports Academy in Morgan City. In its inaugural year, the team is playing in some test markets including Crowley and Morgan City, looking for a permanent home starting in 2010.

It did not take long for the Continental League to invite the team into the league.

“I think it was about three or four days after they called that we were in the league,” Bourgeois said.

This weekend, the Pipeliners will play four games at Acadian Ballpark against the Kingfish. Game times are set for Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. and a doubleheader Saturday starting at 4 p.m.

The Thursday and Friday games will be nine-inning games while the Saturday double-header will be a pair of seven-inning contests.

“We’re real excited to be here,” Bourgeois said. “The facilities are awesome, and we’re looking to find a permanent home.”

Bourgeois and player-coach Carlos Castillo, a former major league pitcher, visited New Iberia Tuesday to see the facilities at Acadian Ballpark and to meet with Migues to work out some of the details about playing this weekend in New Iberia.

“We’re just looking for a home place,” said Bourgeois, whose team has in effect been playing all road games since the season started May 15.

“It’s been tough playing on the road every week so we’re looking for that home field.”

Migues and the employees at the Parks and Recreation Department have been helping the team as much as possible preparing for the games this weekend and hopefully giving the team a permanent home.

“I’m very excited about the fact they would even consider New Iberia,” Migues said. “The one thing that I like is that we like to mentor kids and give the kids a positive role model. If the team comes to New Iberia, it would be a great asset for them to be involved with the kids.

“We’re going to play whatever role we can play in helping them to succeed. We’re going to be involved and have an agreement with them should they decide to come here.”

New Iberia has a history with minor leagues as a team played here from the 1930s to the 1950s as the Cardinals and as Pelicans until 1958. The Pipeliners could bring that legacy back. After touring Acadian Ballpark, Bougeois liked the facilities and the potential of the team to move here.

“These are some of the nicest facilities that I have seen,” Bourgeois said. “We’re very excited to be here, and I hope that things work out and we can do something in the future.”

The Pipeliners GM also added that there would be promotional give-aways during the three days the team was playing in New Iberia, but wasn’t immediately sure what those promotional items would be.