The Westfield Starfires are a collegiate summer

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team based in Westfield, Massachusetts. They play in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL), a wood-bat league with a 56-game regular season comprising eight teams from northern

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

to western

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. The team, owned by Chris Thompson, plays its home games at

Bullens Field Billy Bullens Field is a multipurpose stadium in Westfield, Massachusetts. Bullens Field is the baseball and football home field for Westfield High School and Westfield Technical Academy. Bullens Field is also the home field for the Westfield Sta ...

in Westfield.

History

The Starfires entered the FCBL in 2019, replacing the

Martha's Vineyard Sharks The Martha's Vineyard Sharks is a collegiate summer baseball team based on Martha's Vineyard. It was a charter member of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL), a wood-bat league comprising 7 teams from New Hampshire to western Connectic ...

, who switched to the

New England Collegiate Baseball League The New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) is a 13-team collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league founded in 1993 and sanctioned by the NCAA and Major League Baseball. Each NECBL team plays an eight-week, 44-game schedule during June ...

. The Starfires name was revealed at a media event in Westfield on February 20, 2019. On March 12, 2019, the club announced that its first field manager would be Bill Sandillo, a native of West Springfield and a former player and captain at

American International College American International College (AIC) is a private college in Springfield, Massachusetts. History American International College was originally established on July 18, 1885, as the French Protestant College by Rev. Calvin E. Amaron, who sough ...

. In 2020, the Futures Collegiate League was one of only two leagues nationally to play baseball during the COVID-19 pandemic; leaving Westfield and its fellow teams as prime destinations for some of College Baseball's best talents. The 2020 team featured future professionals such as Nick Dombkowski of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and highly rated prospect Reggie Crawford. In spite of its star-power, the Starfires finished one game outside the FCBL playoffs in 2020. In 2021, The Starfires returned with Tony Deshler as the manager and turned in a strong campaign, shattering the league runs scored record by almost 70 runs, but also managing to miss the playoffs yet again by one game on the final day of the season. While the season ended without a playoff bid, the Starfires produced their first-ever League MVP in Cole Bartels (Penn State) and at one point in the season, had a lineup that featured 9 of the top 13 hitters in the league. 2022 brought with it a managerial change and Tony Deshler stepped down to pursue other opportunities in college baseball and Kyle Dembrowski, a long time assistant, filled the head coach role. The Starfires finally managed to break their playoff-jinx and instead of finding themselves on the outside looking in on the last day of the season as they had the previous two seasons- managed to clinch the final playoff spot on the last day of the regular season - courtesy of a Jackson Hornung (Skidmore) double and a Brandon Jones hard hit infield single to secure their bid. Westfield were later swept in the playoffs by the Vermont Lake Monsters. The Starfires again managed to field over 8 All Stars - holding the highest mark in the league the past three seasons at 26.

References

Futures Collegiate Baseball League teams Amateur baseball teams in Massachusetts 2019 establishments in Massachusetts Baseball teams established in 2019 Sports clubs and teams in Hampden County, Massachusetts Westfield, Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-baseball-team-stub