The Coastal Plain League has announced its schedule for the 2017 summer season. Celebrating its twenty-first season, the CPL will feature 15 teams across Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
For a pdf of the full 2017 CPL schedule, please click here.
The regular season starts on Tuesday, May 30 and runs through Monday August 7. The league’s annual All-Star Break will hosted by the Holly Springs Salamanders July 9-10 in Holly Springs, N.C. The festivities will include an All-Star Fan Fest, All-Star Game and league-wide off-day, with more details to be announced in the coming months.
The league will be split into two divisions - East and West - with eight in the West and seven in the East. The East will be made up of the Edenton Steamers, Fayetteville SwampDogs, Holly Springs Salamanders, Morehead City Marlins, Peninsula Pilots, Wilmington Sharks and Wilson Tobs. Meanwhile, the West will feature the Asheboro Copperheads, Florence RedWolves, Forest City Owls, Gastonia Grizzlies, High Point-Thomasville HiToms, Lexington County Blowfish, Martinsville Mustangs and Savannah Bananas.
All together, each team will play a 56-game regular season schedule, with 28 games per club in the first half and another 28 in the second half. Like in years past, the schedule will have a large concentration on divisional games but will also feature an unbalanced look.
The Petitt Cup Playoffs will again consist of three rounds beginning on August 8 and running through August 16. In all, eight CPL teams (four in the East and four in the West) will make the postseason, including the first half and second half champions for both divisions, with the remaining teams qualifying as at-large bids.
The first round (Divisional Series) will consist of a one-game playoff with the Division Championship Series and Petitt Cup Championship Series being played with a best two out of three format. In the first round the higher seeds (i.e. 1 & 2 seeds in each division) will host the lower seeds (i.e. 3 & 4 seeds in each division) in the one-game playoff. Meanwhile, the following two rounds will have the lower seed in each series hosting game one, while the higher seed will host game two and three (if necessary).
The two teams surviving round one in each division will play for the East and West Division Championships, with the two division winners battling it out in the Petitt Cup Championship Series with the same rules applying as in the second round. As always, the team that captures two victories in the series will be crowned the 2017 Coastal Plain League Petitt Cup Champion.
The Coastal Plain League is the nation’s premier summer collegiate baseball league. Celebrating its 21st season in 2017, the CPL features 15 teams playing in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The CPL has had nearly 1,300 alumni drafted and 94 of those – including 2011 AL MVP and Cy Young winner Justin Verlander – make their Major League debut; while another notable alum – Russell Wilson – won Super Bowl XLVIII. For more information on the Coastal Plain League, please visit the league website at www.coastalplain.com, find us on Facebook and follow us via Twitter and Instagram @CPLBaseball.
For more information contact Shelby Hilliard at shelbyh@coastalplain.com or 919-852-1960.