Newton Minutemen Join New England Baseball Elite

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The Newton Minutemen are proud to announce that they will be joining the New England Elite Baseball League for the 2012 season. The New England Elite Baseball League is comprised of some of the most experienced, well-organized and highly-respected baseball programs in the New England region. The Minutemen are thrilled about joining this league and strongly believes that it will offer a tremendous benefit to the overall experience of the Minutemen program and it's young baseball athletes.

The NEEBL is self-run and will schedule all division games. It will offer a playoff system and championship, as well as an All-Star game, to be played one week prior to the beginning of the playoffs. In addition to this, it will allow teams to enter tournaments and non-divisional opponents on off weeks

Many of the rules that we are accustomed to will remain. The league will schedule one double-header against a divisional opponent on either Saturday or Sunday. The 11U team will play on a 50ft. mound, modified field, with legal leading and stealing and will be allowed to use certified, full barrel bats. The 14U team will play under the same rules (with minor exceptions, like tie-breakers) as last season with AAU. The 15U and 16U teams will be required to use wood bats, which as you all know, excites me greatly.

This move obviously spells the end of New England AAU for the Minutemen Baseball program. We are grateful for the opportunity that AAU afforded us in these past two years and we enjoyed our time there. With that being said, we truly feel that we are "stepping up" with the New England Elite Baseball League. We feel that the NEEBL is a perfect fit for the Minutemen, and is more in line with our program's philosophies on skill development and what we want for our baseball athletes.

"I, personally, am really looking forward to this new and exciting endeavor", said Coach Mike Freire. "It is a great opportunity for our players!"

For further information on the NEEBL please visit http://www.elitebaseballleague.com.