East Lyme — Alex Petchark started attending the Batter Up Baseball Camp when he was 5 years old. The camp, now in its 27th year, was at the Pawcatuck Little League complex back then and Petchark will never forget what he refers to as "the best slushies" at the concession stand there.

"It's different than going to a normal team practice," said Waterford's Petchark, now a coach at the camp being held beginning this week at Bridebrook Park in Niantic. "You are here to have fun. It's not a stressful thing.

"I have good memories, getting together with all my friends, meeting a bunch of kids from other towns. Still now, I'm still friends with some of the kids that coached me. ... It's the best camp around."

It is a camp which director Bill Buscetto of Old Lyme considers a rite of passage during the summertime.

He began the camp, for boys and girls ages 5-12, at the age of 21, when he was still a member of the baseball team at the University of New Haven. At New Haven, Buscetto played baseball for legendary coach Porky Vieira and helped lead the Chargers to the Division II World Series.

Buscetto worked one camp in years prior where all he did was "corral" the players, not really getting to coach them.

"I thought, 'There's got to be a way to teach these kids baseball," Buscetto said. "I'm going to be a senior in college and I just got all my buddies, Isaak Lazarou, JJ Koning, Johnny (McDonald), J.R. Chiappone.

"This has always been about fun, fostering the love of baseball. If they have a good time, they're going to want to keep playing baseball."

Buscetto was unsure this year if the camp would be able to take place due to the COVID-19 crisis. There are four weeks scheduled, July 13-17, July 20-24, Aug. 10-14 and Aug. 17-21, each of which can handle up to 100 campers.

He worked with East Lyme Parks & Rec director Dave Putnam to paint spots on the grass on a hill overlooking the baseball fields at Bridebrook, where each player can sit and eat lunch while social distancing. A member of the camp staff greets each player as he or she gets out of their car each morning with a spritz of hand sanitizer. Each player brings his or her own bat and water bottle.

"I was kind of keeping an eye on the development," Buscetto said of the limitations due to the coronavirus, which resulted in the cancellation of part of the winter season for Connecticut high school sports and all of the spring.

"But then the state started opening up with the (youth) baseball and the tournaments. We were determined to see it through if possible. (I didn't want to) make the whole thing about the coronavirus. I told the parents, 'This is going to be normal.' Let the kids have some fun and get back to baseball.

"It's been great, honest to God. The parents that have their kids in this program, they want their kids to play baseball. They see we're doing what we can. I sterilize the balls at night and the helmets at night. The kids are very well-behaved. The kids are wonderful."

Late Wednesday morning, Buscetto was overseeing a drill for catchers who were throwing down to second base to try to catch a line runners sprinting from first to second. The handful of young catchers were throwing strikes to second with regularity, forging ahead of the runners in a little competition, 13-11. Buscetto then let the runners take a lead, drawing protests from the catchers.

Later during lunch, before the players dispersed for the series of live games which traditionally end each day at camp, Buscetto's son Billy and nephew Mikey Buscetto, both former campers who are now in their 20s, sat on the hill in the midst of the kids they come back each year to coach.

Montville graduate TT Bowens, who signed a contract recently with the Baltimore Orioles as an undrafted free agent, was sitting at a picnic table, having signed a few autographs for the young players earlier in the week.

Other former campers Brady Sheffield and Joe Funaro of Old Lyme and Kevin Johnson and JJ Brennan of Waterford were milling around getting prepped for an afternoon session of coaching. Trainer Desarae Latino-Davis has been with Buscetto all 27 years of the camp.

Petchark, 21, won a state championship as a senior at Waterford High School in 2017, then went on to play at UConn Avery Point, where he was an All-American. He was slated to play this spring for Central Connecticut State University, where he is now an economics major.

"I probably started when I was 6 and came every year until I graduated from camp," added Old Lyme High School grad Sawyer Gregory, now 28, set to be a first-grade teacher in Old Lyme beginning in the fall. "It's just fun here. I remember the core aspects of sportsmanship, having fun, seeing how the kids just love it. I remember the games and the drills. I still do.

"This year, (the kids) just need it."

Buscetto said they are all "part of something special."

"I'm telling you, it just about makes you cry," Buscetto said. "For me, the feedback, if a kid comes up and wants to give you a hug (prior to this year when players must follow social distancing rules) or says, 'Coach, I had two hits today,' it makes it worth it."

Buscetto clearly has a good rapport with the players.

"They love him," Gregory said.

"If a parent asks me a question, I try to know the kids' names by heart," said Buscetto, who presents each participant with a medal on the final day of camp, as well as handing out a few special awards. "To me, it's important. ... Whether it's a little kid or a teenager, I don't think you can fool a kid. They know you're real.

"When I'm here, I'm 47, but I act like I'm 20. In the grand scheme of things, we're just having fun here."

v.fulkerson@theday.com