Telegraph photo by TOM KING Ryan Williams bears down for the Merrimack NEIBL Varsity Division squad during a recent scrimmage. The expanded circuit opens its season Monday and Tuesday.

Are you ready for some more baseball?

After the New Hampshire COVID Baseball League (NHCBL) opened up last week, the second state summer baseball league, this one even more high school oriented, is set to start the season.

Ready to go is the ever-expanded New England Independent Baseball League (NEIBL) that will have five local teams playing through the month of July as part of a varsity division. There is also a sub-varsity division with several teams as well. The combined number is a whopping 27 teams and some 500 players.

But for the varsity, four of them are set to or already have started and will be in full season mode this week – Hudson, Amherst, Hollis Brookline and Merrimack. Merrimack actually began its season Sunday, dropping a twinbill at Weare, 5-2 and 5-0, the second game shortened by rain. Hudson in turn swept Upper Valley 8-7 and 13-1 on Saturday.

The Nashua Chiefs, which will play a smaller schedule as they got started late due to city field restrictions, just began workouts this past weekend. So far they have seven games scheduled, and head coach Mike Coy has sent out a request to the league’s coaches to try to schedule more games.

Just getting this off the ground took a ton of work, mainly by Amherst coach Tom Walker, who is the Souhegan High School baseball coach and spearheaded the NEIBL’s return.

“It’s innings on the mound, plays in the field and trips to the batters box that just eight weeks ago seemed like a pipe dream,” Walker said, referring to the pandemic concerns. “Many of the players were in better than expected physical shape so the ramp up time was quicker than expected.

“If the weather gods cooperate, we should have a great month of July baseball culminating with a few small divisions of tournament action in early August.”

The emphasis in this league is on development, and those tourneys likely will be more of the round robin variety, but that remains to be seen. Locally, Hudson hosts Amherst Tuesday at 5:45 p.m. (at Alvirne) while Merrimack was slated to head to Weare yesterday for a doubleheader and visits Upper Valley Tuesday at 5:45 p.m.

Meanwhile, here’s a look at the teams:

HUDSON

Key notables: Adam Scharn, p-inf; Alex Bouley, p-of; Kyle Boulanger, p-inf; Travis Holbrook, inf-of; Nick Jacques, inf-p; Isaiah Power, c-inf.

“It will be good to get our Hudson kids playing baseball again,” Hudson coach Steve Beals said. “The summer should be spent catching up on fundamentals, building team chemistry, and having some normalcy in physical activity while practicing safety procedures. … I see the summer season as practice.”

AMHERST

The Amherst-Souhegan club is made up of a big local mix of players from Souhegan, Wilton-Lyndeborough, Nashua High Schools North and South, and Timberlane.

Key notables: Bobby Henline, Dylan Dufour, inf; Reese Colby, of; Troy and Sean Brennan, inf; Jeff Lugo, Isaiah Gutierrez, inf-of; Jimmy Reel, p-of; Brady Mason, 1b; and Zach Diamond, of.

Pitchers will include Henline, Dufour, the Brennans and Gutierrez.

“We’ve pulled together talent from a number of area schools,” Walker said. “Our bench is young and they’ll be challenged at this level but they’re ready for a season of ‘baseball growth.'”

MERRIMACK

Key notables: Ryan Williams, inf-p; Dylan Brander, ss-p; Mike Grover, inf-p; Keaton Miller, inf-of-p; Aidan Ponder, of; Evan Roy, c-inf-of; Jake Bunis, of-p.

Head coach Kevin Moyer has some versatility with this group, headed by Williams, who could be the staff ace and is committed to St. Joseph’s of Maine. Most of the infielders can play multiple positions.

“The team is a mixture of veteran varsity players and guys that would have competed to make the varsity (at Merrimack),” said Moyer, whose team will play its home games at Harvey Woods Field on the campus of closed Daniel Webster College in Nashua. “This is a great opportunity to give these kids a chance to play baseball this year and to see what they can do on the diamond.”

HOLLIS BROOKLINE

Key notables: Henri Boudreau, p-inf; Ryan Coutu, p-inf-of; Cam Guay, p-inf; Justin Lemos, inf-of; Nate Sartell, p-c-inf-of; and Grant Snyder, p-1b-of.

Boudreau, who is also playing for the Nashua NHCBL team, will join Guay Coutu, and Snyder in the rotation, when he is able depending on his Nashua starts.

“This season, we have a great combination of older players and younger players,” head coach Justin Roberts said. “We have numerous players on the roster that were part of the 2019 State runner-up team that bring experience in all facets of the game: pitching, hitting, fielding, and leadership.”

And, added Roberts, some HB underclassmen who will get valuable experience.

NASHUA CHIEFS

Chiefs coach Mikey Coy was thrilled 10 days ago to get the go-ahead for fields, etc. in Nashua, and already a couple of the local NEIBL teams have scheduled the Chiefs. Coy, whose workouts began this weekend, was hoping for a good return group from last summer’s team, which was the NEIBL champion and was headed by Roy Santiago and Ryan Lopez.

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Here are four locals’ finalized schedules and home fields through the first two weeks of the season, through July 11:

HOLLIS BROOKLINE (HB HS Field) – Tuesday, June 30 vs. Londonderry, 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, July 2 vs. Merrimack, 5:45 p.m.; Saturday, July 4 vs. Salem, 10 a.m.; Tuesday, July 7 at Keene, 7 p.m.; Thursday, July 9 at Hudson, 5:45 p.m.; Saturday, July 11 vs. Portsmouth, 10 a.m.,12:30 p.m. (2).

HUDSON (Alvirne HS Field) – Tuesday, June 30 vs. Amherst, 5:45 p.m.; Thursday, July 2 at Durham, 5:45 p.m.; Tuesday, July 7 vs. Portsmouth, 5:45 p.m.; Saturday, July 11 at Merrimack, 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. (2).

MERRIMACK (DWC’s Harvey Woods Field) – Sunday, June 28 at Weare 2:45 and 5 p.m. (2); Tuesday, June 30 at Upper Valley, 5:45 p.m.; Thursday, July 2 at Hollis Brookline, 5:45 p.m.; Tuesday, July 7 vs. Concord, 5:45 p.m.; Thursday, July 9 vs. Portsmouth, 5:45 p.m.; Saturday, July 11 vs. Hudson, 10-12:30 (2)

AMHERST (Souhegan HS Field) – Tuesday, June 30 at Hudson, 5:45 p.m.; Thursday, July 2 at Salem, 6 p.m.; Saturday, July 4 at. St. Thomas, 9, 11:30 a.m. (2); Tuesday, July 7 at Nashua, 6 p.m.; Thursday, July 9 vs. St. Thomas, 5:45 p.m.; Saturday, July 11 vs. Durham, 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. (2).

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