Avery Gould approached a makeshift home plate as various members of the Yuba College baseball team stood ready to help the 11-year-old with his swing.

After roping Wiffle ball after Wiffle ball up the middle — leading pitcher Darren Boon to exclaim "this kid is crushing them" as the line drives whizzed by his 49ers baseball cap — the Butte Vista Elementary student trod to the next station filled with compliments from a quintet of players more than seven years his senior.

Gould was one of more than 200 boys and girls from the Mid-Valley who converged on Winship Field at Yuba City High School on Saturday to take part in a clinic hosted by the Peach Bowl Little League.

The event featured tutelage from Lindhurst High baseball coach Bill Biggs, Yuba College skipper Tim Gloyd and Yuba City program head Jim Stassi, in addition to the full rosters of the 49ers' and Honkers' baseball teams.

But behind the excited faces of kids shagging balls, practicing hitting and learning the importance of properly warming up was the fact that the event was more than just a baseball tutorial taking place on an unusually gorgeous January day.

It showed an organization that was once rocked to its core by greed can rebound handily through an incredible effort from volunteers, donors and those who love the game of baseball — and hate that someone would steal from children.

During the 2006-07 season, Peach Bowl Little League was ripped off of an estimated $35,000, an amount new league president Bob Smith and coaching coordinator Steve Stevens both confirmed.

The funds, lost through check fraud and embezzlement, nearly crippled the long-running organization. "When I took over, we had no money," Smith said. "We had our first general meeting in the dark because PG&E shut off the lights."

One person, a relative of a former board member, was prosecuted for producing fraudulent checks, which included some that had the account number for the Little League, said Sutter County Assistant District Attorney Chris Carlos, now a member of the newly elected Peach Bowl board.

The offender, Rory Osborne, whom Carlos described as a "huge check forger," is now serving time in a state prison.

But the problems hardly ended there. The money lost to check fraud was "not a huge amount," said Carlos, somewhere in the four-figure range. But others siphoned off funds in a variety of ways, such as not depositing the money made from snack bar sales.

The Little League's money was stolen by people who took advantage of a system that believed people wouldn't steal from a group that benefits kids.

Because there were no safeguards in place, those who padded their pockets with money earmarked for things like chest protectors did so with impunity.

"There was definitely an investigation by the Yuba City Police Department, but (the organization's records) were not up that we could prove who had taken the money," said Carlos, who learned of the situation only after becoming a board member at Peach Bowl.

Smith put it more bluntly.

"(There was) definitely embezzlement, but we can't prove it because the records sucked," he said. "It's hard to point fingers when you don't have enough documentation. When you can't blatantly say, 'he stole from us.'

"They didn't steal from regular people. They didn't steal from us — didn't steal from an organization. They stole from kids."

It is a problem that is hardly unique to this group; there are documented cases of similar activities throughout the country as well as locally.

Eryka Abella of Gridley faces embezzlement allegations stemming from the loss of $32,878 during her tenure as a treasurer of a Little League, Gridley Police said. She will appear Tuesday for a hearing in Butte County Superior Court.

But through Smith and the rest of the board's guidance, Peach Bowl has rebounded. There are now safeguards in place to make sure something like what happened will never occur again, he said.

"I think I was the only president that gave a financial statement speech (during the first meeting)," Smith said.

Now, after repaying numerous debts to everyone from Pepsi to Wonderbread, and with the help of "generous community members," Peach Bowl is no longer running a deficit, Smith said.

The group is now around $9,000 in the black, current league treasurer Brian Ashburn said. At the same time last year, the league was "in the hole about $20,000."

Even with the positive changes, Peach Bowl is still short of where it wants to be. In the past, the league began each season with around $20,000 to $30,000 in the bank to cover expenses, said Stevens, the coaching coordinator.

"We lost a lot of money," he said. "We haven't been able to put any money into equipment."

That motivated Stevens to organize the clinic as a fundraiser for the league. It was advertised as free but the league accepted donations. At the end of the event, Ashburn estimated the group had made nearly $1,100 from donations and concession sales.

But when walking around the various fields of Yuba City High, it was obvious this event took on more than a monetary significance. Scattered around the various fields of Yuba City High were examples that this day was not about fraud allegations or budget sheets.

Throughout the 16 stations broken up by age group for the boys and the various softball activities across the street for the girls were examples that this day was about the passion for the game.

That was especially true for the Yuba College players, who spent the early morning at their campus in Linda working out for three hours before coming over to help the younger players. And at the different stations, the Yuba players provided solid instruction on the fundamentals of the game.

"Anything I try to help them out with, they're all ears," said 49ers pitcher Rusty Ward. "They soak it up like a sponge."

Sutter Little League All-Star Drew Mullaney's top drill was the hitting exercises. Daryck Loftis' best part of the day was the hand-eye coordination techniques. For Peach Bowl player Aaron Benton, it was all about catching the fly balls. His former teammate Jack Rentz helped establish the consensus that batting was the favorite among the participants.

"We want these kids to learn the game and have fun," Yuba College coach Gloyd said. "Little League is supposed to be fun.

"I know what Peach Bowl is struggling with what happened, so it is great to have guys like (Stevens). You have to have people that care. Hopefully some people in the community can help Peach Bowl out; it doesn't have to be money."

For the selfless Stevens, his effort is just business as usual.

"It's not about anything but the kids," he said. "It's not about us but the kids. That's the way I promote it."

While coaching by the batting practice cages, Gloyd pointed out he was especially happy to see some parents who stuck around to watch their kids learn.

Tim Miller, who made the trip from Oroville, sat on the bleachers taking notes he could use to help coach his twin daughters' softball team.

Fermin Botello from Live Oak enjoyed watching his son Felix get help on his pitching mechanics. Harry Cheim, who played in Peach Bowl growing up and is now a coach and donor for the league, lounged against a fence by the visitors dugout while watching his son Harridan get catching instructions from Max Stassi, the star of the Honkers baseball team and a projected first-round pick in the 2009 Major League Baseball draft.

"It's one of the greatest things they have going on," he said.

Smith eagerly agreed.

"It's better than what I thought ... you couldn't ask for a better day. This is perfect."