The Alexandria Aces, entering their 9th Season in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League, are excited to open the 2016 campaign at home at Frank Mann Field on Tuesday, June 7th against the Gaithersburg Giants at 7 PM. The Aces, as in 2015, will play 40 games, 20 at home and 20 on the road. With the return of the two division format, the Aces will again play an unbalanced schedule. In terms of the Aces South Division rivals, the DC Grays visit Frank Mann Field on Sunday, June 26th for the only scheduled home twi-night doubleheader and again in July for a single game. The 2015 League Regular Season Champions, the Bethesda Big Train, visit Alexandria for three games in July. The Aces then round out the South Division home slate with two games apiece against the Herndon Braves and Vienna Riverdogs. The Aces play their only scheduled road doubleheader against the Herndon Braves on Sunday, June 19th. One more journey to Herndon, two games each at DC and Bethesda, and three games at Vienna round out the 20 games against South Division foes.
The schedule format remains the same against the five North Division franchises as the Aces will play four games against each team, two home and two on the road. Highlights include the Home Opener versus Gaithersburg and contests against the defending League Champion Baltimore (Towson MD) Redbirds on Sunday, June 12th and Wednesday, July 6th. One more contest against Gaithersburg and two games apiece against the Baltimore (Hanover MD) Dodgers, Rockville Express and the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts complete the home games against the North Division. Overall, the Aces play 10 home games in both June and July. The regular season ends at home on July 22nd against Vienna.
For the 2016 season, the Aces are scheduled for 3 Monday, 1 Tuesday, 2 Wednesday, 4 Thursday, 4 Friday, 2 Saturday and 4 Sunday home games. Several Tuesdays, to include June 14th, 21st, and 28th and July 12th, and 19th are set aside for makeup games in the event of inclement weather. In addition, the Cal Ripken League is not slated to play on Monday, July 4th, and Monday, July 11th. The Cal Ripken League All Star game is scheduled for Wednesday July 13th.
Playoffs:
After a make up day on Saturday, July 23rd, the playoffs begin on Sunday July 24th, with 6 teams qualifying. With the same format as that used in 2015, after single elimination games between the 3rd and 6th seeds, and the 4th and 5th seeds, the playoffs will continue with best of three semifinal and championship series, culminating no later than Sunday, July 31st. The goal of the Alexandria Aces is to be playing baseball during the last weekend in July!
With a few exceptions, all Alexandria Aces regular season home games will be played at 7PM. First pitch for Game 1 of the Home twi-night doubleheader on Sunday, June 19th will be at 4:30 PM followed by a 7 PM nightcap. The Sunday, July 3rd contest against Bethesda will commence at 5 PM to allow fans to attend community fireworks afterwards. In the event of a home makeup game or doubleheader due to previous postponements, the updated game time will be posted on the Aces website and across the various Aces social media outlets.
Hope to see you at Frank Mann Field for the Home Opener on June 7th! Find the full schedule located here.