Prep Baseball Report

2022 New England Summer Series: Team Preview - U.S. 9 Prospects


Bruce Hefflinger and Dylan Hefflinger
PBR Ohio Senior Writer and Editor in Chief/NW Scout

 

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Eight of the top organizations in New England have teamed up with Prep Baseball Report to form a new league that will benefit players and colleges alike.

The PBR New England Summer Series will begin in late June to the delight of those involved.

“College coaches can come out to see the best organizations in the area,” explained Rich Gilbride, the director of the league. “A bunch of colleges in New England have asked why can’t we get something together at one venue for them to come out and watch and we finally decided to get one together. Everyone thought it was a great idea.”

The eight-team league will play four games once a week at Fraser Field in Lynn, Ma,, a 5,000-seat venue that has played host to many minor league teams over the years. Games will be nine innings in duration and be held at 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. every Tuesday beginning on June 28.

Players throughout each organization in the 2023-2025 graduating classes will participate.

“These are high-level organizations that already send kids on to play college baseball,” Gilbride said. “This will only help bring maximum exposure for players in each organization.”

The Expos, Gilbride’s organization, will be joined in the newly formed league by the U.S. 9 Prospects, GBG Hawks, J & M Baseball Academy, Northeast Baseball, New England Ruffnecks, River Rats and Team Boston. Each will play one game each week over a seven-week season, with play ending on Aug. 16.

2022 New England Summer Series: Team Preview - U.S. 9 Prospects

U.S. 9 Prospects

Pete Mrowka speaks about the organization.

Formerly the Boston Prospects, the organization has been newly named but little else has changed. Pete Mrowka is back to head the administration, a position he has held since it all began a decade ago.

“We’ve been fielding teams for 10 years and I’ve been there for all 10,” Mrowka said.

Back at the outset there was just one team, but the number has now reached seven for groups 11U through 18U.

“We try to develop kids to be able to play in college and beyond,” Mrowka noted. “We focus on workouts in the winter, two per week starting in November. We keep our roster size low so kids get a lot of reps in practice and in games.”

The schedule varies from year to year.

“We play mainly in the northeast, but if we have a roster that needs to go national we’ll go there if it’s justified,” Mrowka pointed out. “In October we go to Florida for national stuff, but it’s really year by year depending on our makeup. If we have a lot of D-II and D-III players, we’ll stay here.”

The potential to be part of the PBR  New England Summer Series is exciting according to Mrowka.

“We play tournaments on weekends, so a midweek opportunity gives our pitchers live bullpens and gives our other players ABs instead of shutting down for five days,” Mrowka explained. “This will be bringing together good programs with good coaches, so we know we’ll have a good competitive level of baseball.”

Based out of Duxbury with most players from the south shore from Boston to Cape Cod, the U.S. 9 Prospects merged with a group from Connecticut run by Bran Looney, hence the change in organizational name this year.

“We’ll go with one team to North Carolina this year, but basically we’ll play in the northeast, mid-Atlantic and the new league, plus team camps at Fordham, Northeastern, UMass-Lowell and UMass-Amherst,” Mrowka noted.

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