I love attending baseball games on any level. Local youth baseball games with the stars of tomorrow playing in oversized shirts, baggy pants and their nervous parents pacing behind the dugouts. High school games, like yesterday’s Narragansett vs Middletown, which featured my amazing nephew Jackson Hohl in LF (great game Jackson, you had that dude at home plate). And all the way through college, the minors, and into the professional level – where the skill level combines athleticism, near perfect hand-eye coordination, and talent that is just out of this world. With all that being said, my absolute favorite games to attend are summer collegiate baseball league games.
From coast to coast, Maine to Florida, and locally here throughout the Northeast, summer collegiate baseball leagues are must see baseball. These leagues feature top baseball talent from not only local collegiate baseball teams, junior colleges, and even some high school prospects but also baseball talent from across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and beyond. Every summer, teams’ rosters are filled with players looking to showcase their talent against top competition. These players are looking for an opportunity to show their team, their league, attending scouts, and the baseball world that their hitting, pitching, fielding, catching abilities are top notch. And maybe, just maybe, make an impression on someone scouting the game, who may just make a call, draft an email, send a text that this player should be the next SS or P playing for the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
So I mention the word “opportunity” in my baseball posts quite often. I believe that opportunity is one of the most important factors in the progression of a baseball talent. A talented player with little or no opportunity to showcase their talents in front of an impressionable audience is just that – a talented player. They will be talked about for years, maybe decades as a talented player, who never made it passed high school or even one year of collegiate baseball. Opportunity gives a talented player that chance to be showcased in the presence of peers striving for the same goals. An opportunity like playing in a prestigious summer collegiate baseball league is one you do not want to pass up.
Two collegiate baseball stars will have the opportunity to play this summer, with and against their peers, and showcase their baseball abilities in front of scouts, who attend just about every game. And these two collegiate baseball teams and in particular, these two players are on my must see list for summer collegiate baseball this summer:
- Brockton Rox, Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England – Marika Lyszczyk
- Sag Harbor Whalers, Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League – Olivia Pichardo
Interesting fact – Marika Lyszczyk played last summer in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League for…The Sag Harbor Whalers. I attended a game there in Sag Harbor, Long Island last summer but did not get a chance to see Marika pitch. Hopefully, I will have better luck this summer with her new squad, the Brockton Rox. Best of luck to Olivia and Marika, as they get their opportunity to play summer collegiate baseball this summer!!!
You can find out more about the Brockton Rox and Sag Harbor Whalers, including full rosters, game schedules, stats and more by going to their team websites:
The Baseball Storyteller 