The New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) is a 13-team collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league founded in 1993 and sanctioned by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

and

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. Each NECBL team plays an eight-week, 44-game schedule during June and July, with a playoff in early August. Like the Cape Cod Baseball League and other amateur leagues, the NECBL is a showcase for top college-level players, giving professional baseball

scouts Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpack ...

a chance to see prospective pros playing against each other. Along with the Cape Cod Baseball League,

Northwoods League The Northwoods League is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. The league is amateur, and players are not paid, so as to maintain their college el ...

, and

Coastal Plain League The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal League which operated in the area from 19 ...

, it is considered one of the top summer leagues in the country and is a part of the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball. In 2019, the Collegiate Summer Baseball Register ranked the NECBL as the 2nd best collegiate summer baseball league, behind only the Cape Cod League. Founded in 1993, the NECBL began its direction under George Foster, former Cincinnati Reds and

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

All-Star and

home run leader, and Emmy Award-winning television producer/director Joseph Consentino. Play started in 1994 and today the NECBL has become a fourteen-team league that plays in all six

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

states. It recruits players attending U.S. colleges from New England, the other 44 states, and foreign countries, provided that they come from NCAA-sanctioned colleges or universities, are in good academic standing, have completed at least one year of athletic eligibility, and have at least one year of eligibility remaining. The NECBL's current commissioner is Sean McGrath, former general manager of the North Adams SteepleCats. McGrath replaced Mario Tiani, who retired following the 2012 season.

League structure

The NECBL became a 13-team league in 2013 with the addition of teams in Rhode Island ( Ocean State Waves), Massachusetts ( Plymouth Pilgrims) and New York ( Saratoga Brigade) (the league's first team to operate outside New England), but reverted to 12 teams after the Brigade folded. On October 30, 2015, the league announced that the Upper Valley Nighthawks would begin play in 2016 in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

, Vermont, bringing the league back to 13 teams. The Plymouth Pilgrims ceased operations after the 2018 season but were replaced by the Martha's Vineyard Sharks, a former member of the

Futures Collegiate Baseball League The Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL) is an eight-team collegiate summer baseball league. It has four franchises in Massachusetts, two in Connecticut, and one each in New Hampshire and Vermont. Format The Futures League is a wood-bat ...

(FCBL). The New Bedford BaySox ceased after the 2019 season, replaced by the Bristol Blues, who also moved from the FCBL. The North Shore Navigators returned to the league in 2021 after nine years in the FCBL.

Teams

Current teams

* A caret (^) denotes an approximate capacity, including lawn seating.

Relocated or renamed teams

Defunct teams

Season structure

In the 2021 season, the league was divided into two seven-team divisions, the North Division and the South Division. During the regular season, teams played 44 regular-season games, solely against division opponents, because of COVID-19 travel concerns. Scheduled doubleheaders were seven-inning games. The top four teams from each division qualified for the eight-team playoff bracket, in which teams played best-of-three series to determine the champion. For 2022, the NECBL went to three divisions, with a single pair of games against each out-of-division team.

Past champions

In the NECBL's history, the most successful team is the

Newport Gulls The Newport Gulls are a wooden-bat, collegiate summer baseball team based in Newport, Rhode Island. The Newport Gulls Baseball Club is a member of both the New England Collegiate Baseball League and the NECBL's Coastal Division. Since 2001, the Gu ...

, with six league championships and eleven championship series appearances (including one championship appearance as the

Cranston, Rhode Island Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island. The official population of the city in the 2020 United States Census was 82,934, making it the second largest in the state. The center of population of Rhode Island ...

-based Rhode Island Gulls). The

Keene Swamp Bats The Keene Swamp Bats are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Keene, New Hampshire. The team, a member of the New England Collegiate Baseball League The New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) is a 13-team collegiate summer baseba ...

are next with five league titles and the

North Shore Navigators The North Shore Navigators are a wooden-bat, collegiate summer baseball team based in Lynn, Massachusetts, playing in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). The team plays home games at Fraser Field in Lynn. The team is owned by Ol ...

have four.

All-Star Game

The All-Star Game usually takes place from mid- to late July. Prior to the game a Home Run Derby is held and, since the 2007 All-Star Game, a Special Skill Competition for Most Accurate Arm and Fastest Runner.

Home Run Derby winners

Notable alumni

The following former NECBL players have gone on to play in

. Former NECBL players have reached the major league rosters of all thirty MLB teams, the thirtieth team being the Philadelphia Phillies when, in September 2015, Brian Bogusevic debuted with the team.

Media

All NECBL games are broadcast online through the NECBL Broadcast Network from Blueframe, with Pointstreak providing live stats for all games.NECBL Broadcast Network
at necbl.com, URL accessed June 4, 2010
Archived
June 4, 2010 On May 14, 2010, the league signed an agreement with Pointstreak. Pointstreak provides "real-time scoring, official statistics, and administration services" to the NECBL. A highlight of Pointstreak's services is Game Live, a real-time statistics feature providing

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

for every NECBL game.NECBL Signs Agreement with Pointstreak
at necbl.com, URL accessed June 4, 2010
Archived
June 4, 2010 In 2020, the league announced that Blueframe would provide the official streaming service for the league.

Notes

External links

New England Collegiate Baseball League

Team websites

Danbury WesternersKeene SwampbatsMystic SchoonersNew Bedford Bay SoxNewport GullsNorth Adams SteepleCatsOcean State WavesPlymouth PilgrimsSanford MainersValley Blue SoxVermont MountaineersWinnipesaukee MuskratsNorth Shore Navigators
{{College Summer Baseball Summer baseball leagues 1993 establishments in the United States College baseball leagues in the United States Sports leagues established in 1993 Baseball leagues in Vermont Baseball leagues in Connecticut Baseball leagues in Rhode Island Baseball leagues in Massachusetts Baseball leagues in New Hampshire Baseball leagues in Maine Baseball leagues in New York (state)