Chad Bell and DJ Peters started their 2022 professional baseball seasons nearly 7,000 miles apart.

Until recently the former Western Nevada College baseball stars were playing in the same Triple-A league in the Northeast with their teams separated by just 197 miles.

Bell, 25, was playing for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in Pennsylvania, and Peters is a member of the Rochester Red Wings in New York. Both teams are part of the International League, one step below Major League Baseball.

Peters was signed by the Washington Nationals earlier this month and has collected six hits in 37 at-bats for the Red Wings, a team that was founded in 1899. He has a triple among his hits and two RBI.

Peters spent parts of last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Texas Rangers, hitting 13 home runs between the two teams. The 2016 fourth-round draft pick of the Dodgers elected to take his talents to the Korea Baseball Organization in 2022, but unfortunately his 13 homers and 48 RBI in 85 games werent enough for the Lotte Giants. They waived the 26-year-old outfielder during the leagues All-Star break in July.

Bell was promoted by the New York Yankees from their Double-A Somerset club to Triple-A affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Aug. 9. However, the hero of WNCs 2016 region championship has since been assigned to the Yankees high-A club in Hudson Valley, which has concluded its season.

The 19^th-round selection of the New York Yankees in 2019 had been making a gradual move through the Pinstripes minor league system. He started the 2022 season at Double-A Somerset, swatting 14 homers, knocking in 40 runs and batting .249. His good play led to a promotion to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he hit .200 with a homer and three doubles and scored seven runs in a small sample size of 65 at-bats.