Baseball

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Instructional - Farm (Kindergarten) - Grove St. Fields

The Farm level is for Kindergartners learning baseball and consists of 5 & 6 year olds.

  • There are no teams - Farm is skills focused: throwing/catching, proper hitting technique, catching pop flys. 
  • We finish each session with a 1 inning "game" of coach pitch.
  • Farm meets one weeknight per week (Wednesday around 6 PM - 7 PM), and each Saturday afternoon for 1 hour (typically 1-2 PM).
  • Farm Players are given "B" hats and "Belmont Farm Team" uniform shirts.
  • Farm Players need to bring a baseball glove, sneakers are okay, baseball pants are optional.

Instructional - Single A (1st & 2nd Grade) - Grove St. Fields

The A level consists of 1st Grade and 2nd Grade 7 & 8 year olds who will be placed on different teams in the Single A division.

  • Single A is predominately coach pitch, with some effort to introduce pitching to the 2nd grade players on Saturday.
  • The goal of Single A is to have fun and learn the fundamentals of baseball.
  • The teams play 1 Weeknight game a week from 6 PM to 7PM - Traditionally this takes place on Thursday night.
  • We host a coach pitch game for 1st graders on Saturday afternoons at 2 PM-3PM  Sand Lot Style (make your own teams)
  • We do a 2nd sandlot game with "intro to pitching" for 2nd graders in a 2nd Sandlot Game on Saturday from 2PM -3:30 PM
  • We host one extra skills session each week on a weekday to work on fundamentals of hitting, fielding, catching pop ups and pitching / catching.
  • Players will be provided a Hat and a Uniform Shirt.
  • Typically no activities on Fridays.
  • We do try to accomodate friend requests as long as it's reasonable.

 

Cal Ripken - In Town Baseball at Grove St. Fields

Cal Ripken Majors (5th and 6th Grade):

The Majors level consists of 5th and 6th Graders.

Players will be evaluated and evenly spread out among several Majors teams to create balanced teams.

Outside Umpires will umpire the Majors games.

The teams play a 12 game schedule with 2 games per week and 1 skills session each week.

Evaluations take place in early April.  The Season begins the Monday after April school break and ends in early June, typically the week before school gets out.

Players are provided Uniform Shirts and Hats.  They must provide on their own, baseball pants, glove and belt.  Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center has everything available that a player will need.

Cal Ripken Minors (3rd and 4th Grade):

The Minors consists of 3rd and 4th grade players.

Minors is player pitch and coaches umpire the games while trying to encourage proper fundamentals of pitching and defense.

Players will be evaluated and evenly spread out among several Minors teams to create balanced teams.

Our goal is that these players will have fun, work hard, and develop their skills both naturally and through the effort of the coaches.

The teams play two games a week with a skills practice each week for a total of 3 activities per week.

Evaluations take place in early April.  The Season begins the Monday after April school break and ends in early June, typically the week before school gets out.

Players are provided Uniform Shirts and Hats.  They must provide on their own, baseball pants, glove and belt.  Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center has everything available that a player will need.

 

Travel Baseball - Spring

Travel baseball will be available for ages 9 through 12 (3rd to 6th Grade) pending player interest and coaching volunteers.

The travel program provides a higher competitive level of play than in-town and an additional schedule of Friday evening games From early April to early June.

Competition will be predominantly provided by neighboring communities such as Lexington, Wellesley, Weston, Concord-Carlisle, Acton, Burlington, Waltham, Medford, and Winchester.

The travel program is for those players who are truly passionate about baseball.  Please be aware that Travel players will have the opportunity to participate in up to 5 baseball-related activities (skills, practice, and games) each week during the Spring once the In-Town baseball begins after April break.

Also, it is a simple fact that enrollment (i.e. number of players signed up) can create difficulties in team placement.  We find the best number per team is roughly 12 players so that players can get at-bats and play the field (not sit the bench).

If, for whatever reason, we cannot find the appropriate place for your son or daughter on a travel team, he/she will be selected as an alternate, but the entire travel portion of the registration fee will be refunded. We will, of course, do everything we can to avoid this scenario, and have typically been successful in doing so.

In the past when grades have had 2 travel teams in a grade (due to a signup of 20+ players) we have created two teams in two different styles:

  • The first style is to have each team be balanced by player ability, ultimately taking 5 players from the top 10 (1-10) ranked players and 5 players from the bottom 10 (11-20) in skill level and creating 2 "equal" teams.  For Example Team 1 has players ranked (1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19) and Team 2 has players ranked (2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20).
  • The second style is to create higher and lower skill level teams that focus on putting the top 10 players on an "A" team and the bottom 10 players on a "B" team.

There are pros and cons for each style of team creation and ultimately the style to create multiple teams will be left to the coaching volunteers for that grade and confirmed by the BYBS Board.  If there are differing opinions from the coaching volunteers the board will make the final decision on the structure and formation of the teams.

Player evaluations for Spring teams are based off of last years In-Town Season and Spring and Summer Travel seasons.

Travel Season starts with some winter workouts in late Feb. and March in the Belmont High School Gym and outside weather and coaching permitted.  First game is the first Friday in April.  Season ends in early June.  All games on Friday evenings approx. 5:30 first pitch.  Weekly practices are coaches choice, in past seasons many coaches will schedule a weekly practice in addition to the Friday game.

 

Babe Ruth

Players who are between the ages of 13 and 15 (7th through 9th grade) are eligible to play for Belmont teams in the Arlington-managed Babe Ruth Baseball League (ABL). The ABL has teams from many local towns who will play games on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and/or Sundays against other teams from the local area. The season begins in early April and ends at the end of the school year. Players up through 9th grade who are 15 years old or younger by April 30th are eligible to play. Tryouts will be held before the season to assign players to teams in either the A or B division.

Once again - numbers of sign ups can have an impact on if we have one or two teams.  In past seasons we have had too many for one team and not enough for two teams.  In this instance, other Arlington based teams have offered our players a roster spot and we have let the player decide if they would like to play for the Arlington based roster.  BYBS will do our best to present each option available to allow our kids the opportunity to play baseball.

There is a summer session of Babe Ruth as well.

Travel Baseball - Summer - Instructional & Cal Ripken Ages 7-12

Belmont has travel options in the following leagues that have different levels of skills and competitiveness by league.  Summer team availability is contingent upon coaching volunteers.  Without reliable coaching volunteers we cannot organize properly with many player/family vacations and throughout the summer months.  In the event we cannot obtain coaching commitments, players will be given the option of Summer skills if they want to continue some sort of in town baseball in the Summer.

Summer team placement, level of play, is determined by the coaching volunteers of the team and the BYBS Board and based on Spring Travel and In Town season performance.  If a child is not selected for their first-choice team, parents will be informed of alternative team options, taking into account age, team needs, and coaching availability.  Alternates get called up a lot in the summer depending on the schedules and some alternates end up playing more games than players initially selected for the top team.  Parents will be communicated the different team options depending on age, team and coaching availability each summer if their child is not selected for their first choice team.  All interested participants will sign up for Summer League baseball and, during registration, indicate via a drop-down if they are interested in just skills or in Team/Game play plus skills.

Middlesex League (8U - 12U – Rising 3rd Graders to Rising 7th Graders) – Middlesex League is a very laid back league that is similar in competitiveness and skill level to in-town baseball.  Batting orders run for as many players are present.  Thus is we bring 12 players to the field we bat all 12 in the order.  We play games at home and at towns within close proximity to Belmont. Games are weekdays only (Monday to Thursday) and no weekend games.

  • 8U Team - From year to year depending on coaching and player interest we try to enter an 8U rising 3rd grade team (Spring Single A 2nd graders) in the 9U/10U division.  The players will be communicated with and selected by the volunteer coaches after they sign up to play summer skills/travel. Please keep in mind that 12 players is typically the max that is manageable per game.
  • 9U and 10U division - Pending coaching volunteers we typically have an entrant in this division.  Please keep in mind that 12 players is typically the max that is manageable per game.  The players on this team will consist of players not selected for the 9U and 10U Bay State League teams.  Some players will get the opportunity to be alternates for the Bay State team and have guaranteed Middlesex League Games.  In the event we have greater than 15 players available for this team we may have coaches ask for 12 players per game to show and have the players take turns in which games they attend.
  • 11U and 12U division - Pending coaching volunteers we have availability to create a team in this league.  The 11U and 12U division has fewer teams than the 9-10U division.  The competition in this league tends to be on the lower end.

Watertown Summer Baseball League (11U & 12U – Rising 6th and 7th Graders) – Belmont entered into this league combined with Watertown Youth Baseball in the summer of '24 and summer of '25.   This league has 2-3 teams, typically 2 from Watertown and 1 from Belmont.  It gives our players an organized summer league close to home with a level of competition close to or slightly above our In-Town Spring League (higher than Middlesex).  This league is organized by Watertown Youth Baseball and all games are located in Watertown.  This league introduces our kids to leads on the basepaths, pick off attempts and balks as it is a “50/70” league which means the mound is 50 ft. from Homeplate (vs. 46’) and bases are 70’ from Homeplate instead of 60’.  Games for this league will take place on weekdays in Watertown.

Bay State League (9U-12U – Rising 4th Graders - Rising 7th Graders) – Bay State League is highly competitive and is the most competitive league that Belmont enters teams into.  This team is composed of our highest level players and the highly skilled oponents that we play will include many players that play on club baseball teams.  Teams tend to go for more wins over development in this league.  Only 9 players play at a time and only 9 players bat in the lineup.  Substitutions are made “old-school” and some players only play 2-3 innings in the field and bat as little as 1 time per game.  Rules and Pitch Counts are strictly monitored in the Bay State League.  Games are twice a week during weekdays and on weekends.  If Belmont wins enough games they will get placed into additional weekend tournaments.  Team Rosters will likely be made up of 11 players and we will have 3 to 4 “alternate” players that can play on a lower level Belmont team and get ‘Called-Up’ for Bay State Games as we will have a lot of players miss games with vacations etc.  Also, players that play for Bay State and are not getting as many at bats or innings played can work with other coaches in the Travel system to try and get games in other leagues when available.

Summer Skills - Coach Jordy Allard works in some ‘sandlot style games’ as well as skill development for rising 2nd grade through rising 7th grade.

We have an earlier session 2 weeknights per week for younger less experienced players, typically rising 2nd to rising 4th grade.  Then we have a later session intended for older players in rising 5th to rising 7th grade.  Players from Summer Travel leagues can attend skills if they can make the dates work.  Players that don't want to commit to a team or need to focus on skill improvement and love playing baseball are encouraged to sign up for skills.  The skills nights have a sandlot vibe to them and the kids have a great time.

Baseball Skills/Clinics

The last 2 seasons, 2024 and 2025 our skills sessions (1x a week for Single A, Minors and Majors) have been led by former Northeastern University and Cape Cod Baseball League Starting Pitcher, Jordy Allard.  Jordy has rave reviews from many of our parents and focuses first on fun and secondarily on teaching the fundamentals of hitting, pitching, fielding and catching.  Jordy is also available to book for one on ones both in season and out of season.  In the winter Jordy works indooors at Extra Innings in Watertown, MA.  To book your child for one on one skills (Pitching, Hitting or both) you can email Jordy at jordy.allard@gmail.com.

Register Here

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