An Ohio Valley League franchise is returning to Bowling Green next season.

Just don’t call them the Duelers.

The Franklin Duelers, part of the collegiate wooden-bat OVL the past few seasons, has rebranded and renamed for next season as the Bowling Green Lugnuts after shifting home games from Franklin-Simpson High School to South Warren this past season.

Lugnuts owner/general manager Phil Cundall said the new franchise name is an homage to the Bowling Green Hot Rods, the city’s South Atlantic League minor league franchise.

“The rebranding came after we had to change locations last minute from Franklin to Bowling Green,” Cundall said. “I just think that getting into Bowling Green would be a whole lot better venue overall for the summer collegiate program. The Bowling Green Lugnuts came from wanting to play off the Hot Rods a little bit. They’re like big brother, we’re like little brother type deal. They’re the pro team, we’re the amateur college kids. I wanted to make it fun for summer collegiate baseball.”

Cundall hopes to continue building ties with the Hot Rods after the OVL held its first-ever doubleheader at Bowling Green Ballpark, with the Duelers playing host in one of the games. Cundall’s team got plenty familiar with the Hot Rods, attending several home games during off nights in the OVL.

“We got to play there this year and we had a pretty good turnout for our first time, so we want to continue that next year,” Cundall said. “We’ll probably do the same thing, have another day where we can play at (Bowling Green Ballpark) and four more teams from our league will come in. We like that market – it attracts college kids when they know they could play in a minor league park.”

Cundall made the move to Bowling Green this past season out of necessity, but now plans on staying in the city to reach a wider audience and the greater potential to recruit host families to take in the players for the summer. Renaming the team to reflect its new home was the first step, with more to come including determining a new color scheme for the franchise and nailing down a home ballpark – likely either South Warren or Greenwood – for next season.

“Ticket sales and concession sales, people coming to watch these kids play is huge,” Cundall said. “That’s what pays the bills is getting people in the stands.”

Cundall also named a new manager for next season. The Duelers ended this season’s campaign under manager Kyle Schexnayder after dropping a first-round playoff series to the Full Count Rhythm, losing 17-6 on Saturday to in the second of a best-of-three format.

Next season, Wilhelm Allen – a graduate assistant coach at Southern University last season who served as an assistant for the Duelers this year – will take over as the Lugnuts’ manager.

Cundall hopes the rebranding of his OVL team will help raise awareness of the Lugnuts heading into next season.

“We’re all about community involvement,” Cundall said. “Just this summer, I had family come in who stayed weeks from all over the country. I had people from the Bahamas who came here and stayed 10 days, watching their kid play. I’m bringing tourism to Warren County. I had hotel stays – I had probably 60 days of hotel stays in the two months that we played, just from families coming in and watching their kids play.”{&end}