NECBL Reveals 2022 Schedule
January 21, 2022 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) News Release
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Commissioner Sean McGrath is excited to reveal the full schedule for the New England Collegiate Baseball League's (NECBL) 2022 summer season.
After last summer's memorable campaign ended with one of the league's oldest organizations - the Danbury Westerners - hoisting their first-ever Fay Vincent Sr. Cup against the North Shore Navigators, whose first season back in the NECBL after a decade-long hiatus was nothing short of a success, the New England League's 28th season of play kicks off on June 7 and will feature a new divisional alignment, scheduling format and playoff structure that promises to add a new wrinkle to a league rich with history.
The 14-team league will now shift to three a three-division alignment this summer: the Coastal Division will be comprised of Martha's Vineyard, Mystic, Newport, North Shore and Ocean State; the North Division features Keene, Sanford, Upper Valley, Vermont and Winnipesaukee; finally, the West Division will group Bristol, Danbury, North Adams and Valley together.
The 2022 season will see each team play a 44-game slate in a balanced/unbalanced format; teams in the five-team divisions (Coastal and North Divisions) will play two divisional teams seven times and the remaining two in-division teams six times, while organizations in the four-team West Division will face off eight times against one another. Each team will also play every out-of-division squad two times apiece to account for the full 44-game ledger.
Opening Day will see the reigning league champion Danbury Westerners host Ocean State on Tuesday, June 7, as part of a loaded schedule that sees all 14 league teams in action. Other first-day matchups include Winnipesaukee hosting Keene in a Granite State battle, Mystic battling North Shore at their newly announced home of Dodd Stadium, Sanford facing Upper Valley in a battle of North Division rivals, Vermont welcoming Newport in a clash of past league champions, North Adams taking on Bristol in an all-West Division affair and Martha's Vineyard battling Valley in a showcase of two playoff teams from a year ago.
The Martha's Vineyard Sharks will play host to the 2022 NECBL All-Star Game on Sunday, July 24, 2022 at the Shark Tank, marking the first time the Sharks have hosted the NECBL All-Star Game since joining the league in 2019. The All-Star Game features the NECBL's top talent featuring some of the best talent the league has to offer - with players from all NECBL organizations showcasing their skills in front of scouts from every Major League Baseball (MLB) organization. The rosters will be comprised of two teams based on the 2021 two-division league with teams in the North and the South.
In the final week of the season, each of the league's 14 teams will play solely against division rivals in hopes of qualifying for the 2022 NECBL Playoffs, which will feature six teams (the three division winners and three wildcards who have the next three highest winning percentages league-wide after the division winners).
The division winners with the top-two regular season winning percentages will earn first-round byes, while the third division winner will battle the wildcard team with the lowest win percentage, and the wildcard teams with the best and second-best win percentages will also face off in a single-elimination wildcard round matchup.
The top seed/division winner will then meet the advancing team that is the lowest remaining wildcard team, while the second-highest seed/division winner faces the highest remaining wildcard team in the best-of-three semifinals before the last two teams standing square off in a best-of-three NECBL Championship Series.
The final games of the regular season will be held on Saturday, July 30, with the following day (July 31) open for makeup games before the postseason begins on Monday, August 1.
The New England Collegiate Baseball League is a wooden bat college summer league that fields teams in all six New England states. Partially funded by Major League Baseball, the New England League started play in 1994 and has sent over 150 alumni to the Major Leagues with nearly 30 alumni taken in the first round of the MLB Draft. For continuing coverage of the NECBL, visit NECBL.com and follow the league on Twitter, Instagram and on Facebook.
New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from January 21, 2022
- North Shore Navigators Announce 2022 NECBL Season Schedule - North Shore Navigators
- NECBL Reveals 2022 Schedule - NECBL
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