Six years after playing in the Connie Mack World Series as a member of the Ann Arbor Braves, Jordon Banfield is returning to the amateur baseball tournament as the manager of another elite travel squad.

The Ann Arbor Travelers' roster is dotted with talent from across the state, and even Ohio and Canada, but its core is local talent.

That was on display at a regional in Battle Creek when Pioneer High School senior-to-be James Strickland drove in cleanup hitter Myles Debol (Saline) to clinch the trip to Farmington, N.M., on Aug. 5-12.

The Braves started as a local Rec and Ed team and grew into one of the best amateur teams in the nation by 2005, taking third place at the Connie Mack World Series with the help of several eventual professional and Division I stars, including Tigers catcher Alex Avila and Pioneer graduate Zach Putnam, currently playing with the Cleveland Indians’ Triple-A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers.

Whether the Travelers will enjoy the same success -- at Connie Mack or beyond -- remains to be seen.

Banfield started the Travelers while he was still a senior in college. He was 21 and the players 14. In shorts and a three-quarter sleeve T-shirt at a recent practice, the 24-year-old still looks young enough to still toe the slab.

A closer look reveals a hairline past its prime and a young coach in full command of his dugout.

“I think I have success communicating with them because they see a guy who’s not that much older than them,” said Banfield, who runs the Great Lakes Baseball Academy and is an associate scout for the Texas Rangers. “They don’t just blow me off as some adult who’s blowing smoke, but at the same time I’m really hard on them.”

“Even though he’s young, I respect him as much as any coach I’ve had,” said Travelers ace pitcher Daniel McKinney, a high school senior-to-be from Bowling Green, Ohio.

McKinney is one of five players on the Travelers roster verbally committed or signed with the University of Michigan. That includes local prep players from the 2011 class James Bourque (Huron) and Donnie Eaton (Father Gabriel Richard) and 2012 commit Travis Maezes (Pioneer). Another soon-to-be Wolverine, Trent Szkutnik (Temperance Bedford) also plays with the Travelers.

The Travelers have exceeded even Banfield's lofty expectations by qualifying for the world series this year. Everyone on the team but Eaton and Bourque have one remaining year of eligibility.

“We’re definitely a year ahead of schedule. We’re good and we knew that we could compete with these teams, but they still have a year on all of our kids, age wise.” Banfield said.

Just how much difference can a year make? Ask Bourque, who went from 5-foot, 8-inches tall to 6-1 between his sophomore and junior years. Now 6-4, the former control pitcher throws consistently in the high 80s and is a solid No. 2 for the Travelers.

And just because they have another shot at getting back to the Connie Mack World Series, doesn't mean the Travelers are letting this opportunity go to waste.

“We just need to stay within ourselves,” Bourque said of the upcoming tournament, “We’ll go down there and there’s going to be some kids throwing 95, some kids that are going to be pros, but we just need to do what we’ve been doing all summer.”

The Connie Mack World Series takes place August 5-12 at Ricketts Field in Farmington, N.M. All games will be broadcast live online at VerticalRadio.org.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2561, by email at petercunningham@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @petcunningham.