Futures Collegiate Baseball League News & Notes

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The 2020 Futures Collegiate Baseball League season has officially come to an end. Congrats to the Nashua Silver Knights on winning the league championship this past Saturday night at home. The series between them and Worcester went the three-game distance with Nashua taking the deciding game 5-3. Binghamton University hurler Gabe Driscoll picked up the win by going 1.1 innings, allowing one hit, one run, zero walks and punching out three. Driscoll would get some offensive help from Kyle Bouchard out of Nichols who went 2-for-4 with a double, a run batted in and he scored twice. A tip of the cap to both teams who were the best two in the league this season.

Before the championship series took place, the league announced its awards for the summer year. Here now are the winners of some Future League hardware. Ben Rice of Worcester was named the league MVP. The Dartmouth College standout had a monster of a year for the Bravehearts. He was third in the league’s batting race with a .345 average and his 27 RBI were also third. His on-base percentage of .469 was good for fourth in the league. He led the circuit in home runs with 11, total bases with 79, and in slugging at .681.

The next two award winners played for the Brockton Rox. The Pitcher of the Year is Nick Sinacola. The ace of the Rox staff was second in ERA at 1.62, while striking out a league-leading 55 batters in 39 innings of work. The Maine Black Bear product held opponents to a .184 batting average. He had two double-digit strikeout games and went seven innings on three different occasions. His teammate, Joey Walsh, won the Relief Pitcher award. Walsh made 10 appearances out of the Rox bullpen. The left-hander out of Boston College allowed just five hits over 17 innings of scoreless baseball. He punched out 24 hitters and walked only eight. Walsh held opponents to a .096 batting average and over his last five appearances, did not yield a hit.

The Defensive Player of the Year is North Shore Navigators outfield Ben Malgeri. The Northeastern Huskies outfielder played in all 36 games played by North Shore. He recorded 66 putouts in a league-high 73 total chances. He was credited with five outfield assists and was a part of two double-plays. The Top Pro Prospect was also from the Navigators. Sal Frelick saw time in both the infield and outfield in the 22 games played. The BC Eagle led the league with a 411 batting average with 25 runs scored, a .485 on-base, and a .622 slugging percentage. Frelick began his summer with a 17-game hitting streak and reached base in 20 of the 22 games played. As he heads back to Boston College, Sal is ranked 18th by MLB.com for the 2021 draft.

The top Pro Pitching Prospects are a pair of Connecticut Huskies. First, there is Reggie Crawford, the left-hander who pitched for Westfield this summer. He made five appearances out of the bullpen, earned three saves, allowed one run, five hits, and struck out 10 over 6.1 innings. Ben Casparius spent his summer with the New Britain Bees. He made three starts totaling 12 innings. Ben struck out 18, gave up one earned run, and issued five hits.

The Manager of the Year comes from the championship team, Kyle Jackson from Nashua. After starting the year with three straight losses and five out of the first nine. Jackson helped turn things around. The team finished with 21 wins and topped the league in team batting average .273, team ERA at 4.37, and fielding percentage at .968. This was Jackson’s first year as manager after spending the previous six years as the team pitching coach.

We hope you enjoyed our look at the Futures Collegiate Baseball League this summer.