Collegiate Baseball League Europe

Collegiate Baseball League Europe (CBLE) is a is a Summer Collegiate Baseball League based in Europe.

The league currently consists of four teams: La Rochelle Admirals, Oosterhout Bombers, London Cavaliers and Sant Boi Falcons of Barcelona.

Each year the coaching staffs draft their team rosters from the list of registered players in the month of March. Players typically play their regular season for college teams in the US or for club teams in elite leagues across Europe.

History

The league was founded in 2012 in Oosterhout the Netherlands.

The inaugural tournament was held in July 2012 with 56 players from 10 different countries. All games were played at "Sportpark de Slotbosse Toren" in Oosterhout, home of the Oosterhout Twins.

In 2014 the league expanded to baseball venues in London (GBR), Barcelona (ESP) and La Rochelle (FRA). As the only collegiate summer league in "the Old World", CBLE aims to offer players age 18-23 a great summer experience with high-level baseball and a nice piece of Europe at the same time.

On April 17, 2014, CBLE announced an agreement with the Northwoods League to offer their top players the opportunity to play with the Elite College players in the United States. The agreement between the two summer collegiate leagues is a first of its kind.

In September 2014, 10 CBLE alumni represented 5 different countries at the 2014 European Championship held in Germany and the Czech Republic. The game France vs. Belgium on September 16th featured two CBLE alumni, Owen Ozanich (Falcons 2012) and Ben van Nuffel (Falcons 2013) as the opposite starting pitchers, while Axel Poesmans (Cavaliers 2014) was the starting catcher for Belgium.

Teams

COLLEGIATE BASEBALL LEAGUE EUROPE
Current Teams	Entered	Head Coach
LA ROCHELLE ADMIRALS	2012 - present	Steven Algarobba (USA)
OOSTERHOUT BOMBERS	2012 - present	Davis May (USA)
LONDON CAVALIERS	2012 - present	Mark Wisthoff (USA)
SANT BOI FALCONS OF BARCELONA	2012 - present	Tony Klarberg (SWE)

Venue	Location
Oosterhout Twins	Oosterhout, Netherlands
La Rochelle Boucaniers	La Rochelle, France
London Mets and Essex Arrows	London, Great Britain
Sant Boi	Barcelona, Spain

League champions

• 2014: ADMIRALS
• 2013: ADMIRALS
• 2012: FALCONS

Notable CBLE Alumni

• Jesse Aussems (Kingdom of the Netherlands National Team)
• Par Axelsson (Swedish National Team)
• Pontus Byström (Swedish National Team)
• Cedric Desmedt (Belgian National Team)
• Luke Foley (British National Team)
• Brian van Gaever (Belgian National Team)
• Christoffer Granström (Swedish National Team)
• Matthew Joossens (Belgian National Team)
• Tommy Lindell (Swedish National Team)
• Mikael Lindqvist (Swedish National Team)
• Stijn van der Meer (Kingdom of the Netherlands National Team)
• Ben Van Nuffel (Belgian National Team)
• Owen Ozanich (French National Team)
• Axel Poesmans (Belgian National Team)
• Julian Rip (Kingdom of the Netherlands National Team)
• Dmitry Shtykher (US independent leagues, Russian National Team)
• Mathew Smith (Adelaide Bite, Australian Baseball League)
• Jacob Syren (Swedish National Team)

References & External links

• CBLE Official Website
• CBLE on Facebook