News

The Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League Front Office approved new rules regarding the standings, the postseason and the All-Star Game on July 9th that will be designed to make the league more competitive and fun for the fans in the 2018 season.

The first rule change will be the expansion of the HCBL postseason from four teams to five. At the end of the season the fourth-place team in the standings will host the fifth-place team in the HCBL Wild Card. The format will be a single elimination game and the winner will face the top-ranked seed in the best-of-three Semi-Finals.

The 6th Annual HCBL All-Star Game held at Baseball Heaven in Yaphank, N.Y. on Monday, July 9th will see a change from the North-South format of the previous five seasons. The teams for this season’s All-Star Game will be determined at the end of play on June 30th. The odd placed teams in the standings (1-3-5-7) will play the even placed teams in the standings (2-4-6). In the event of a tie for any of the positions in the standings on that date, traditional playoff tiebreaker rules (head-to-head, run differential) will be used.

The mercy rule which took effect in the HCBL during the middle of last season will have a change added in 2018. In addition to a game stopping with a ten-run lead at the end of seven innings or more, a game will stop if a team has a twelve-run lead after the completion of five innings or more.