For years, the Culkin Athletic Association and Vicksburg Baseball Association have lived in almost separate worlds.

Both leagues’ missions — to provide youth baseball to Warren County’s children — were the same, but they were affiliated with different governing bodies, played in different tournaments and had different rules. The VBA drew most of its players from the city of Vicksburg and was larger, while Culkin drew its players from the outer reaches of Warren County.

Those days are coming to an end. The two leagues are joining forces to play ball.

Culkin and the VBA have merged into one organization, the Vicksburg-Warren Athletic Association, Culkin president Rick Smith said. The new league will be open to all Warren County residents and will play most of its games at Halls Ferry Park.

Registration for the new VWAA will run through Feb. 25, and opening day is set for April 4 at Halls Ferry Park.

“It just seemed like a natural thing. There weren’t any reasons not to do it,” VBA President David McHan said. “From my perspective, I can’t think of any negatives. We’re happy it’s happening. It’s only going to mean more families participating in recreational sports.”

A proposal to renovate Halls Ferry Park spurred the merger, Smith said. A new multi-million dollar facility with up to 16 fields is planned to replace the current facility. The new facility came a step closer to reality on Tuesday when the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to authorize Aquila to manage the facility. Halls Ferry Park is maintained by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

The new park is expected to be a magnet for tournaments and teams from all over the south and turn Vicksburg into a baseball hub. Looking ahead, Smith said it made sense to bring the county’s two leagues under one banner.

“We’ve seen our numbers dwindle a little bit, and we felt with Aquila moving in it was going to pull even more kids away,” Smith said. “We felt like it was an opportunity to bring the two leagues together.”

Both sides will benefit from the merger.

For Culkin’s players, registration fees will drop by as much as $25 per player. The new league will use the VBA’s fee structure, which ranges from $40 for children younger than 8 to $60 for players ages 13 to 15. Culkin’s fees were $65 per player in all age groups last season.

The VBA, meanwhile, will gain nearly 200 new players who will bring a rush of talent and help field all-star teams in tournaments across the state.

By merging, there will also be less competition for unheralded but hard to find help like umpires and scorekeepers, Smith said.

“In the long run, the benefits are more competitive play. Bigger’s not always better, but it’s also more economical. We were duplicating some services like uniforms. Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a thousand uniforms than it is 200,” Smith said. “We were all having some problems with staff, like umpires and scorekeepers. Mostly administration things.”

Smith and McHan said the new league will largely follow the VBA’s organizational model. That includes the fee structure, using the Halls Ferry fields, and maintaining the VBA’s affiliation with national organizations Babe Ruth and USSSA. Culkin had been affiliated with the smaller Dizzy Dean Baseball.

The Culkin Athletic Complex, which is owned by the county, will be used as a practice facility and for overflow when the schedule is crowded.

The VWAA will also be separate from Aquila once it takes over management of the Halls Ferry Complex. Aquila’s project has been stalled by environmental studies, but once it’s built McHan said he expected Aquila to handle the new facility’s management while the VWAA managed the county’s baseball leagues.

While a healthy rivalry has existed between the leagues for years, largely along city-county lines, Smith and McHan said there was no resistance to the merger.

“It was a unanimous vote by the VBA board to do it,” McHan said.

Smith said his group’s vote was similar.

“It was absolute, 110 percent cooperation between the VBA and Culkin boards. It surprised me a little bit because I don’t know all of them (in the VBA). But all the people on both boards, their main interest is putting the kids first,” Smith said. “It’s also a time to show some unity between the city and county organizations. Maybe we can be a leader on this.”