YORK, Pa. (AP) - The Atlantic League plans to resume play with a 120-game schedule for each team starting May 27 after missing the 2020 season due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Atlantic League teams had played 140 games in past seasons.
The eight-team league will be in its first season as a partner league of Major League Baseball, and its 23rd season overall. The Atlantic League, whose teams are not affiliates of major league clubs, has used rules experiments for MLB in the past.
The expansion Gastonia Honey Hunters are slated to open at home on May 27 against the Lancaster Barnstormers, and other teams are scheduled to start the following day, the league said Wednesday.
The Lexington Legends and West Virginia Power are new to the league this year, shifting from the Class A South Atlantic League. They replace the Somerset (New Jersey) Patriots, who became the New York Yankees’ Double-A affiliate, and the Sugar Land (Texas) Skeeters, who became the Houston Astros’ Triple-A affiliate.
The May 28 schedule includes the Long Island Ducks hosting Lexington, the York Revolution hosting the High Point Rockers and West Virginia hosting the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
Reconfigured divisions have Lancaster (Pennsylvania), Long Island, Southern Maryland and York (Pennsylvania) in the North, and Gastonia and High Point (both North Carolina), Lexington (Kentucky) and West Virginia in the South.
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