Texas Collegiate League
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The Texas Collegiate League (TCL) is a summer collegiate baseball league based in the North Texas area that played its first game in 2004. All players in the league must have at least one year of NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. Players are not paid in order to maintain NCAA eligibility, receiving lodging from volunteer host families in the communities that have teams in the league.
Teams are run similar to a professional minor league team, providing players an opportunity to play under the same conditions as the minor leagues. Games are played most days during the week (as opposed to college teams which often play on weekends only), and wooden bats and major league specification baseballs are used (as opposed to college spec balls and the metal bats used at the college level). Season play occurs in early June through late July, culminating in a best-of-three series featuring the top two teams from each division. The winners of the division series advance to a best-of-three championship series in early August.
The Coppell Copperheads and the McKinney Marshals have built an exciting rivalry, facing each other in post-season play in four of the first five years of the league. The 2007 and 2008 TCL Championship Series were known as the "121 Series" for the highway that connects the two North Texas cities. The Copperheads prevailed over the Marshals two games to one in 2007. Coppell's Brandon Belt of San Jacinto College was named MVP of that series. In the ninth inning of the deciding game, Pat McCrory of the University of Texas earned the save after moving from second base to pitcher. With the tying run at third base, he struck out the final two Marshals' batters, much to the delight of a standing room only crowd at the Snake Pit in Coppell. In 2008, the Marshals defeated Coppell 2 games to 0, scoring the winning runs in the 9th inning of both games. In the 9th inning of the deciding game, Nich Schwaner of the University of New Orleans hit a two run double to give the Marshals a 7-6 victory.
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[edit] 2009 Teams
- Brazos Valley Bombers - Bryan-College Station (http://www.bvbombers.com/)
- Coppell Copperheads - Coppell (http://www.tclcopperheads.com/)
- East Texas Pump Jacks - Kilgore (http://pumpjacksbaseball.com/)
- McKinney Marshals - McKinney (http://www.tclmarshals.com/)
- Victoria Generals - Victoria (http://www.victoriagenerals.com/)
[edit] Former Teams (all disbanded)
- Colleyville-Grapevine Lonestars - Colleyville-Grapevine (later the Euless LoneStars and Colleyville LoneStars)
- Granbury Generals - Granbury (replaced by the Denton Outlaws)
- Highland Park Blue Sox - Highland Park (later the Plano Blue Sox)
- Duncanville Deputies - Duncanville
- Denton Outlaws - Denton (http://www.thedentonoutlaws.com/)
- Wichita Falls Roughnecks - Wichita Falls; formerly of Graham
- Mineral Wells Steam - Mineral Wells
- Weatherford Wranglers - Weatherford
[edit] League Champions
- 2009 - Coppell Copperheads
- 2008 - McKinney Marshals
- 2007 - Coppell Copperheads
- 2006 - McKinney Marshals
- 2005 - Denton Outlaws
- 2004 - Coppell Copperheads
[edit] Noted alumni
[edit] Reorganization
In the face of steep financial difficulty, the owners of the teams attempted to change the league's management in 2007. In September, 2007, the Texas Collegiate League filed a lawsuit against several team owners, claiming that the owners and others "conspired to take over the league". The league announced that it would dissolve due to the lawsuit. The following month, the league re-organized under new management. With the exception of the McKinney Marshalls, Coppell Copperheads and Brazos Valley Bombers, all league teams were dissolved. With the addition of one new teams, the East Texas Pump Jacks, the league played the 2008 season with 4 teams.
2008 Season included new attendance records for the league and the Brazos Valley Bombers made the top 50 attendance list of all summer collegiate teams.
