2023 Schedule Now Available
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Chuck Paiva
January 31, 2021 President & General Manager
401-845-6832// gm@newportgulls.com
2023 Schedule Now Available
Gulls Return to Cardines on June 7
NEWPORT, RI- The New England Collegiate Baseball League has announced the Official Schedule for the 2023 Season. It will be the Gulls traveling to Dodd Stadium, home of the Mystic Schooners, to kick off the year on Tuesday, June 6. This will be the only game of the night as the rest of the league will begin play the following evening, including Newport’s Home Opener against the Bristol Blues. University Orthopedics returns as the Opening Night Sponsor for an evening that is always extremely special for the City of Newport and the State of Rhode Island.
The league now has 13 teams as the Winnipesaukee Muskrats will not operate this upcoming summer, but remain hopeful to participate in 2024. Although the league will feature one less team than last year, a Three- Division alignment remains.
Once again, all teams will play a 44-game slate in which they will play each of their divisional opponents seven times. Coastal Teams will play each non-division opponent twice, once at home and once on the road, while teams in the North Division and West Division will play non-divisional opponents three times apiece.
Newport will compete in the Coastal Division alongside the Ocean State Waves, Mystic Schooners, North Shore Navigators, and 2022 NECBL Champion Martha’s Vineyard Sharks. This division proved to be the strongest last summer, with three teams making the playoffs.
This summer features two scheduled doubleheaders. North Adams travels to Newport on Wednesday, June 14 and Upper Valley plays two against the Gulls on Wednesday, July 19. Tickets to Game 1 will allow access to Game 2 of each doubleheader.
All of Newport’s league games will be played on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights, however, the Gulls are set to play on America’s Birthday again this year in a special exhibition match. On Tuesday, July 4, the Bethesda Big Train (Bethesda, MD) of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League will take on the Gulls. Bethesda is a premier summer collegiate baseball team and the Cal Ripken League’s most storied franchise. They have won nine league titles, most recently in 2021 and were ranked as the best team in summer collegiate baseball by Perfect Game in 2011; an accolade the Gulls achieved one year later in 2012. 21 Big Train alums have reached the MLB, including former Boston Red Sox Hunter Renfroe. This is sure to be a wonderful event, featuring two storied franchises.
“I had the opportunity to watch a game at Historic Cardines Field last summer and had so much fun," said Big Train founder and president Bruce Adams. "We are really grateful to Chuck and everyone at the Gulls for hosting us. Baseball at its most genuine on Independence Day. What could be better than that!"
Newport looks to build on 2022’s successful season, a year that saw the Gulls take home the third-most wins in the league- 30. Please view the schedule on newportgulls.com and stay tuned for another release discussing Newport’s Promotional & Events Calendar.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Newport Gulls, members of the 13-team New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL), are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded as the Rhode Island Gulls in 1998 in Cranston, R.I., before moving to Newport in 2001. In addition to recruiting, fielding, and developing a team of the nation’s top collegiate baseball athletes and attracting 50,000 fans annually to Cardines Field, the predominantly volunteer organization strives to benefit the community of Newport County via summer camps, reading programs, fundraisers, scholarships, and charitable donations – totaling over $1 million since 2001. The Gulls are six-time champions of the NECBL – the winningest franchise in league history – and were ranked as the overall No. 1 summer collegiate baseball team in the country by Perfect Game USA in 2012.
For more information about the Newport Gulls, visit facebook.com/newportgulls, follow the Gulls on Twitter @NewportGulls or visit www.newportgulls.com.
###
