While New England teams at all three levels are still chasing conference and national championships, the summer collegiate season gets underway tonight with the start of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League’s 11th campaign.
After serving as the New England’s only show in town and hosting a plethora of top prospects following the cancelation of the Cape Cod League and NECBL last summer, the FCBL is set to feature an expanded, 68-game regular season in 2021. The schedule runs through Friday, Aug. 13 and will include a midsummer All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 13 in New Britain, Conn.
The many changes in the affiliated minor leagues over the past year also allowed the FCBL to pick up two new members from the former Short Season Class A New York-Penn League in the Norwich Sea Unicorns and Vermont Lake Monsters.
As is typical in the summer landscape, rosters will change regularly throughout the first few weeks of the season as Division 1 programs finish conference tournaments and teams at other levels -- the likes of Franklin Pierce, Southern New Hampshire and Wheaton -- complete their NCAA tournament runs. Players’ arrival window will likely extend longer this year due to the delayed start of high school schedules throughout the region.
