Dartmouth Health Children’s Buddy Izayiah visits his Badges Baseball player, Manchester firefighter Adam Langlois, for a tour of the fire station. (Courtesy photo)

LEBANON – New Hampshire’s police officers and firefighters are hitting up the batting cages, donning new helmets, and suiting up to support Dartmouth Health Children’s and the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD). The teams will hit the diamond on Friday, August 26 at Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester for the 2022 CHaD Battle of the Badges Baseball Classic.

Year over year, rosters continue to grow as more first responders turn out in support of Dartmouth Health Children’s. With its largest roster yet, Team Fire will be looking to pull out a win, putting a stop to Team Police’s four-year winning streak. Team Police currently leads the series 7-3.

Team Fire will be led by Manchester’s Jon Lopez, returning as coach for his second year. He will be assisted by Durham’s Pete Leavitt. Walpole’s Adam Kobeski will serve as captain and will help Lopez and Leavitt lead a team of 30, including 10 rookies, from 19 departments throughout the state.

Team Police is led by co-captains Steve Case of the New Boston Police Department and Ed Shaughnessy of the Bradford and Sunapee Police Departments. Team Police’s roster sits at 25, including Case and Shaughnessy, and includes six rookies, with 21 departments represented.

In addition to playing in the game, each player commits to fundraise a minimum of $1,300 to support the children, families and programs at Dartmouth Health Children’s.

All tickets are general admission, and are $15 for those aged 6 and up. Children 5 and under are free.

Additional game details, tickets, full rosters, sponsorship and volunteer opportunities can be found at CHaDBaseball.org.

Since the CHaD Battle of the Badges Baseball Classic’s inaugural game in 2011, more than $775,000 has been raised for the children, families and programs at Dartmouth Health Children’s.