New Britain, Norwich Meeting in 2025 Futures League Championship Series

FOLLOW THE POSTSEASON: Watch (FCBL Network) | GameLive Stats (Pointstreak)

ROCKLAND, Mass. — This week, the Basketball Capital of the World becomes the Summer Collegiate Baseball Capital of the World.

After pulling off semifinal series upsets of the league's top two teams who had a 10.5-game lead on third place in the regular-season standings, the third-seeded New Britain Bees and fourth-seeded Norwich Sea Unicorns will clash in a best-of-three series for the league title.

The series opener is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13 at New Britain Stadium to avoid potential inclement weather in Thursday's forecast.

The full Postseason schedule and results can be found here.

The Futures League's regular-season and postseason champions in both 2023 and 2024, Norwich looks to become the first team in league history to win three consecutive titles. New Britain, meanwhile, makes its championship debut following its first playoff series win since joining the league in 2020. New Britain won 10 of the 14 meetings between the rivals in the regular season. 

New Britain advanced past the second-seeded Vermont Lake Monsters in a best-of-three semifinal series that went the distance, overcoming an 8-0 opening loss to win 1-0 and 6-2. In Tuesday's deciding win, right fielder Camden Righi (UConn) doubled, drove in two runs and scored another as part of a 2-for-5 performance. 

All-Star third baseman Colin Crowley (Winthrop), catcher/outfielder Brennan Staubley (Southern Connecticut) and center fielder David Pengel (Northeastern) all had multiple hits on Tuesday.  led the Bees going 5-for-12 with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored in the series, while second baseman Tim Hennig (Binghamton) scored a pair of runs. Crowley had multiple hits and crossed the plate on Tuesday. 

On the mound, Devin DiVita (Southern New Hampshire) earned the Tuesday win with 3.1 solid innings in relief of Ty Davis (Bryant), who allowed just two hits and struck out six across the first 4.2. Garret Garbinski (UConn) and Braden Young (Wheaton) turned in scoreless starts of their own in the first two games of the set.

Norwich moved on by finishing off the league's first semifinal sweep of a No. 1 seed since 2017 on Monday night, eliminating the Worcester Bravehearts — winners of a league-record 45 games this summer — with a 2-1, 14-inning victory. The Sea Unicorns emerged victorious on a walk-off single by shortstop Charlie Walsh (George Washington), who totaled three RBI and also hit two doubles in the series.

Also contributing to the Norwich offense, left fielder Antonio Ducatelli (Central Connecticut) was a team-best 5-for-9 and scored twice in the series, while two-way riser Bryce Detwiler (UConn) went 4-for-10 with a home run and four RBI. Detwiler drove in three during Sunday's 8-4, series-opening win at Worcester.

Frank Spirito's (UConn) eight shutout, two-hit innings with six strikeouts helped Norwich carry a 1-0 lead into the ninth on Monday, but Worcester scratched across a run to force extras. Justin Gouin (Hartford) earned the win in relief, giving up just one hit across the final four frames. Matt Wootton (Eastern Connecticut) preceded Spirito with an outstanding start of his own in game one, working 6.1 innings of one-run ball.

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