NORTHEAST PREMIER BASEBALL LEAGUE - WEEK 1 NEWS!

APRIL 11TH, 2025

Welcome to an especially exciting entry from Firecracker Sports, our first edition of League News from the NPBL! We’re feeling extra fired up now that Baseball is officially BACK, as the NPBL finally kicked off this past week throughout each of our divisions, all across New England and the Northeast. Throughout this week’s blog, we’ll be discussing notable games and sharing league results, as well as taking the time to highlight some of the top performers in those games. We’re sure you’re all just as excited to be back on the field or in the stands, and all of us at Firecracker Sports are thrilled with the performances we’ve seen and the engagement we’ve had with different programs throughout the NPBL in just the first week of play. We couldn’t do what we do without the participation and support of all of the coaches, parents, and players involved with the NPBL! With that being said, let’s get into recapping the action from this past week, starting with our player of the week winners!

NPBL – Champs of the Week

In case you missed it, we put up some polls over on our Instagram page featuring the same players we highlighted throughout this post. Our followers voted on who would be named “Champ of the Week” for each of our age divisions, and we’ve listed the winners below!

9U Champ of the Week: Wyatt Cloutier (CT Cannons)
- 4-5, 4R, 3 RBI, across two games
- Complete Game shutout in 1st game: 4IP, 0 R, 8 K
10U Champ of the Week: Jace Avery (CT Mayhem)
- 2-4 with 2 triples and 4 RBI
11U Champ of the Week: Joseph Richards (RI Bandits)
- 4-4 with a double, RBI, and 2 stolen bases
12U Champ of the Week: Jiovanni Nelson (CT Titans)
- 2-2 with 2 HR, 5 RBI
- Complete Game no-hit shutout in 1st game: 3IP, 0H, 8K
13U Champ of the Week: Hudson Lyles (Norconn Attack)
- 3-3 with 2 doubles and an RBI in 1st game
- In his 2nd game, Hudson went 2-2 with 2 RBI and pitched as well (2IP, 5K, 0R)
14U Champ of the Week: Ryan Novak (CT Titans)
- Pitched 5 scoreless innings in a nail-biting 2-1 victory
- 5IP, 0R, 6K, BB

NPBL 9U Division Week 1 Recap:

Kicking things off with our youngest age group, the 9U division saw two sets of quality games this past weekend. On Saturday, April 5th, the CT Cannons 9U took both games of their doubleheader with the Jr. Sox 9U, and on Sunday, April 6th, Maplewood 9U and AF Bolts 9U split their two-game set. There were some standout performances as part of these 4 games; for example, in the CT Cannons and Jr. Sox second matchup, Tank Penta went 3-3 with a walk and notched 5 RBI for the Cannons. However, another standout performance from the Cannons earned our pick for 9U “Champ of the Week”; In the first game, Wyatt Cloutier pitched a 4-inning complete game shutout, giving up 3 hits while striking out 8 batters, and adding a hit at the plate with an RBI and 2 runs scored. In his second game, Wyatt added 3 more hits, 2 more RBI, and another 2 runs, capping off a stellar day!

NPBL 10U Division Week 1 Recap:

Moving up a division to our 10U teams, we saw nearly double the action in terms of games played; 5 Star CT 10U won their individual matchup against the CT Mayhem, and the AF Bolts 10U won both their games against Baseball U Mass. 10U. Meanwhile, Maplewood 10U split their 2-game stint with the Rhode Island Bandits 10U, and the Southington Jays 10U also split their games with the CT Aces 10U. Just like with our 9U players, we had some terrific individual stat lines sent in for our 10U division; Max Santos turned in a fantastic all-around day for the AF Bolts 10U, pitching 3 innings only allowing a run, while going 3-5 across both games played with 5 RBI. Mac Shanbrun also had a solid performance for the Bolts, pitching 3 scoreless innings while striking out 7 batters. Last, but certainly not least, Jace Avery went 2-4, legging out two triples, and logging 4 RBI for the CT Mayhem.

NPBL 11U Division Week 1 Recap:

Despite only featuring a single two-game matchup, the 11U division was far from quiet! On Saturday, April 5th, the Rhode Island Bandits 11U defeated the AF Bolts 11U in both their games, putting up 13 runs in each contest. Despite the losses, the Bolts still provided “sparks” of their own; Cole Hemenway went deep in his first at-bat of the second matchup between the two teams, hitting his first home run of the season! This was our first recorded homer of league play, but we’ll get to highlighting a few more shortly.

NPBL 12U Division Week 1 Recap:

The 12U age group of the NPBL was easily one of our busiest this past week, as 11 total games were played within the division; the Ocean State Outlaws 12U split their doubleheader with Base Astros 12U, which ended up being the only series split in the 12U division. On Saturday, April 5th, the RI Bandits 12U won both of their games against Baseball U Mass. 12U, and 5 Star CT 12U won both their matchups against CT Moose 12U. The following day, Sunday, April 6th, the CT Titans 12U defeated the RG Phantoms 12U in both games of their doubleheader, and Brigade Baseball 12U did the same in their two-game set with Southeast Elite 12U. Lastly, Norconn Attack 12U won the individual game they played against the CT Whalers 12U. Our athletes in the 12U age group certainly came through with some big performances this past week; for example, Jiovanny Nelson of the CT Titans went 2-2 with 2 homeruns and 5 RBI, and he pitched a 3-inning complete game shutout, striking out 8 batters as well. Jiovanny truly had himself a day, but he wasn’t the only member of the CT Titans with a solid statline! Owen Kubasek went 3-3 in a contest for the Titans, knocking in 4 runs of his own. One final 12U player we’d like to highlight would be Joey Pirrotta of Brigade Baseball, who went 2-3 with a double and 2 RBI, while also throwing a complete game shutout with 8 Ks!

NPBL 13U Division Week 1 Recap:

The 13U division was just as busy as our 12U teams, with another 11 games having been played among this age group; Norconn Attack 13U won both of their matchups against CT Moose 13U, the Ocean State Outlaws 13U took both games in their doubleheader against the SCBC Coyotes 13U, and the RI Nationals 13U swept NE Ravens 13U in their two-game set. The Southington Jays 13U and CT Mayhem 13U each won a game of the two they played, and 5 Star CT 13U also split their series with Plex Baseball 13U. Lastly, Berkshire Reign 13U beat Powerhouse Bulldogs Black 13U in the individual game they were able to get in. Keeping up with the rest of the divisions, we saw some great player performances put in at the 13U age level; Weston Wiggleworth had a huge day in a game for the Berkshire Reign, going 3-4 with a double and triple, scoring twice, and knocking in 3 RBI. Weston also pitched 3 hitless and scoreless innings, striking out 6 batters in that span. Hudson Lyles had another terrific two-way day for Norconn Attack, as he went 5-5 across both games with a double and 3 RBI, and pitched 2 scoreless innings while striking out 5 batters. The last 13U player we’ll be highlighting is Shane O’Hara of the Ocean State Outlaws, who went 3-4 with 2 RBI and scored 2 runs, helping contribute to a win.

NPBL 14U Division Week 1 Recap:

Lastly, we come to our 14U division; similar to our 11U age group, this division didn’t see nearly as many games played. Despite only featuring a lone doubleheader matchup, the division still saw quality baseball. The CT Titans 14U faced off against the Southington Jays 14U, with the Titans taking both games of the two-game set. The first of the two games was a close contest, but a solid pitching performance from Ryan Novak helped lead the Titans to a win in their first meeting. Novak threw 5 scoreless innings, striking out 6 and walking one batter. In the second game between the two teams, Nick Lombardo had himself a day for the Titans, going 2-3 with an RBI, 2 runs scored, and a stolen base.

We couldn’t be more pleased with how the first week of the NPBL went, and like we mentioned earlier, it truly wouldn’t be possible without the participation and support of all of the teams and organizations that we have involved. Speaking of, thank you again to all our coaches/team managers who sent in game results, as well as player of the game/week nominations! This information is essential when it comes to reporting and finalizing league games, as well as when it comes time to highlight key players and performances, and we appreciate the effort that our participating parents and coaches put in to help us handle our side of things. We hope your season is off to a great start, and whether it’s this weekend, or throughout the rest of the spring season, we cannot wait to get more games in! Thanks again for checking in, and we hope you’ll check out our next League News update in the coming weeks…