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| The Bristol Blues are Western Division champions in the FCBL. They own the No. 2 playoff seed and a first round bye. The Blues begin play Wednesday. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69, 2017 file) |
The Bristol Blues wrapped up the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England’s Western Division title on the last day of the season Sunday.
With that came the reward of a No. 2 seed and a bye through the first round, which begins Tuesday. Bristol will face its opponent in the semifinal round starting Wednesday. Under the FCBL playoff format, the Blues chose to play their first game on the road, then come back home for Game 2 Thursday and Game 3 Friday (if necessary). The other option was for Bristol to host only Game 1 while the other two games would be at the home field of their opponent.
The top seed in the FCBL is the Brockton Rox. The other four playoff teams, seeded third through sixth, are the Wachusett Dirt Dawgs, Pittsfield Suns, Nashua Silver Knights and Worcester Bravehearts. Wachusett hosts Worcester and Pittsfield is home to Nashua. Both games are scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Tuesday.
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| The Bristol Knights are also division champions and a No. 2 seed. The Knights have a bye through the first two days of the CTL Playoffs and play on Wednesday. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69, 2017 file) |
BRISTOL KNIGHTS HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THURSDAY TO PLAY
Bristol earned the No. 2 seed and a bye through the first days of play in the 10-team Connecticut Twilight League Playoffs.
That goes along with the Central Division title the Knights also captured. The playoffs were supposed to start this evening, but the threat of heavy rains postponed all contests. All four games have been moved to tomorrow.
At South Windsor’s Rotary Field, the No. 7 Loco Perro Expos get the playoffs started against the No. 10 Wethersfield Dodgers at 6 p.m. The 8 p.m. game is between the defending champion and No. 4 Elmer’s Silver Bullets and the No. 5 East Hampton Royals.
There is also a game each at Rec Park in Willimantic and Riverfront Park in Glastonbury. In Willimantic at 7 p.m., the No. 8 Willimantic Ridges play the No. 9 Brickhouse Indians. In Glastonbury and also at 7 p.m, the No. 3 Glastonbury Pirates take on the No. 6 East Hartford Angels.
Bristol plays the winner of that 3-6 matchup on Thursday at 8 p.m. in South Windsor.
TRI-STATE RETURNS
After a hiatus for the AABC East Coast World Series, the Connecticut Tri-State Baseball League Playoffs are back starting Friday.
That’s when the No. 12 Wolcott Scrappers play at the No. 5 Bethlehem Plowboys. The game is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. at Gallup Field in Bethlehem and is slated for just seven innings because of the lack of lights. This is the first game of the second round, double elimination format for both teams. For the other six teams, Friday’s games are nine innings.
The No. 3 Tri-Town Trojans host the No. 6 Terryville Black Sox at 5:30 p.m. at Litchfield’s Community Field. The top-seeded Watertown Blaze play the No. 7 Amenia Monarchs at 5:30 p.m. at Deland Field. The second-seeded Naugatuck Dogs host the No. 8 Litchfield Cowboys at 8 p.m. at Rotary Field.
The winners and losers of Wolcott/Bethlehem and Amenia/Watertown play each other Saturday. The same goes for the winners and losers of Terryville/Tri-Town and Litchfield/Naugatuck.
