2016 Baseball Beanpot Moves To New England Baseball Complex

Last season, the Boston College Eagles reclaimed the Beanpot championship, winning their first title since 2011 with a 2-0 shutout victory over UMass at Fenway Park. It was a memorable moment highlighted by a homer launched into the Boston night sky by BC's Joe Cronin.

A repeat performance, however, won't happen this year.

If the Eagles are to repeat as Beanpot champions, they'll need to win it  at the New England Baseball Complex in Northborough, Massachusetts. Per the BC schedule, the first round series will once again take place on campus sites with the Eagles traveling to Amherst to take on UMass in a rematch of last year's championship game. Northeastern will play at Harvard in the other semifinal round game at the same time (April 6th at 3 PM).

Roughly three weeks later, the Beanpot Championship will take place at the New England Baseball Complex. The NEBC is a three-field, all-turf (even the dirt is turf) complex located roughly 30 miles from Chestnut Hill. BC played a number of games there last year.

The Beanpot's relationship with Fenway is every-other-year. In the past, the off-year from Fenway's found a home at several venues, including LeLacheur Park in Lowell (the home of the Lowell Spinners) and Campanelli Stadium in Brockton (the minor league stadium built at Brockton High School that now houses the FCBL Brockton Rox). It's also been held at Northeastern. As such, the Beanpot is expected to return to Fenway next year for 2017.

During last year's brutal winter, the NEBC all but saved New England collegiate baseball as game after game found itself with unplayable conditions on campus sites. BC moved a number of games to the complex, and the fields already serve as a host for a number of games already on the 2016 schedule. Per the complex's official website, Division III-level Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will play all of its home games there, and Middlebury and Bates placed a series on the docket there as well.

BC doesn't play a game in Massachusetts until the middle of March, when they host Holy Cross on March 15th. After that, they will play only one game in Massachusetts prior to the end of that month - on March 22nd at Northeastern. The Eagles finally open up a slew of home games with a game against UConn at the end of March before turning the calendar to the Florida State series to kick off April.

Of the games in Massachusetts, only Northeastern's Friedman Diamond is artificial turf. Both Shea Field and Holy Cross' Fitton Field are grass surface stadiums.

Weather forced the relocation of nine various Boston College games last season, with six moving to the NEBC and a three game home series against Duke being relocated to the University of Delaware. In 2015, the Eagles had home games at Shea Field beginning on March 22nd but didn't get to play a game in Chestnut Hill until April 8th.