Texas Collegiate League

Texas Collegiate League

Texas Collegiate League logo
Sport	Baseball
Founded	2004
No. of teams	8
Country(ies)	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Victoria Generals
Most titles	Coppell Copperheads (3)
Official website	www.texascollegiateleague.com

The Texas Collegiate League (TCL) is a collegiate summer baseball league comprising teams of the top college players from North America and beyond. The TCL is based in Coppell, Texas, and shares its headquarters with the Coppell Copperheads, the DFW Metroplex-area team. The current league President is Uri Geva from the Brazos Valley Bombers.

All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. Players are not paid so as to maintain their college eligibility.

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.

Current Teams

Texas Collegiate League
Team	Founded	City	Stadium	Capacity
Acadiana Cane Cutters	2011	Lafayette, Louisiana	Fabacher Field	1,400
Alexandria Aces	1994 (*)	Alexandria, Louisiana	Bringhurst Field	3,500
Brazos Valley Bombers	2007	Bryan-College Station, Texas	Brazos Valley Bank Ballpark	2,121
Coppell Copperheads	2004	Coppell, Texas	Coppell ISD Baseball Complex
East Texas Pump Jacks	2008	Kilgore, Texas	Driller Park	3,000
Victoria Generals	2009	Victoria, Texas	River Side Stadium

(*) The Aces were formed in 1994 as a member of the Continental Baseball League, and moved to the TCL in 2009.

Former Teams (all disbanded)

• Colleyville-Grapevine Lonestars - Colleyville-Grapevine (later the Euless LoneStars and Colleyville LoneStars)
• Denton Outlaws - Denton (http://www.thedentonoutlaws.com/)
• Duncanville Deputies - Duncanville
• Granbury Generals - Granbury (replaced by the Denton Outlaws)
• Highland Park Blue Sox - Highland Park (later the Plano Blue Sox)
• Mineral Wells Steam - Mineral Wells
• Weatherford Wranglers - Weatherford
• Wichita Falls Roughnecks - Wichita Falls; formerly of Graham
• Mckinney Marshals-Mckinney
• Texas Tomcats-Weimar **

(**) Tomcats played only the 2010 season

League Champions

• 2010 - Victoria Generals
• 2009 - Coppell Copperheads
• 2008 - McKinney Marshals
• 2007 - Coppell Copperheads
• 2006 - McKinney Marshals
• 2005 - Denton Outlaws
• 2004 - Coppell Copperheads

Noted alumni

• Hunter Pence - Philadelphia Phillies
• Clay Buchholz - Boston Red Sox
• Chris Davis - Texas Rangers
• Adam Moore - Seattle Mariners

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 re-organized under new management. With the exception of the McKinney Marshalls, Coppell Copperheads and Brazos Valley Bombers, all other league teams were dissolved. The league voted Uri Geva as the league president. 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.

With the McKinney Marshals disbanding after 2010, the Copperheads are the only remaining franchise to have played in every TCL season.

External links

• Official web site
• TCL Fan Forum