The 1998 NECBL season was the fifth season of the New England Collegiate Baseball League

New England Collegiate Baseball League

The New England Collegiate Baseball League is a 12-team collegiate summer baseball league founded in 1993 and sanctioned by the NCAA and Major League Baseball. Each NECBL team plays an eight-week, 42-game schedule during June and July, with a playoff in early August...

. The league expanded to seven teams with the addition of the Keene Swamp Bats

Keene Swamp Bats

The Keene Swamp Bats are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Keene, New Hampshire. The team, a member of the New England Collegiate Baseball League , plays their home games at Alumni Field. In the NECBL, they are consistently one of the top teams and have reached the league playoffs in each...

 of Keene, New Hampshire

Keene, New Hampshire

Keene is a city in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,409 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Cheshire County.Keene is home to Keene State College and Antioch University New England, and hosts the annual Pumpkin Fest...

. The Swamp Bats were the league's first New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

 franchise.

In the semifinal playoff rounds, Middletown defeated Danbury 2-0, and Torrington defeated Rhode Island 2-0. In the final round, Middletown defeated Torrington 3-1 to win their second consecutive NECBL championship.

Regular season standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Win Pct.	GB
Torrington Twisters New Bedford Bay Sox The New Bedford Bay Sox are a baseball team that plays in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, a collegiate summer baseball league located in the northeastern United States region of New England. The team is located in New Bedford, Massachusetts. New Bedford's Paul Walsh Field serves as...	30	12	.714	0
Danbury Westerners Danbury Westerners The Danbury Westerners are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Danbury, Connecticut. The team, a member of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, plays their home games at Rogers Park. The team played its inaugural season in 1995....	25	17	.595	5
Middletown Giants	24	18	.571	6
Rhode Island Reds Riverpoint Royals The Riverpoint Royals was a team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League from 1996 to 2004. The team was known as the Rhode Island Reds from 1996 to 1999 before going on hiatus for the 2000 season and returning the following year....	21	21	.500	9
Keene Swamp Bats Keene Swamp Bats The Keene Swamp Bats are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Keene, New Hampshire. The team, a member of the New England Collegiate Baseball League , plays their home games at Alumni Field. In the NECBL, they are consistently one of the top teams and have reached the league playoffs in each...	18	24	.429	12
Eastern Tides	15	27	.357	15
Central Mass Collegians Central Mass Collegians The Central Mass Collegians were a summer collegiate baseball team located in Leominster, Massachusetts playing in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, a wood bat collegiate summer baseball league operating in the northeastern United States region of New England...	14	28	.333	16

League Awards

Award	Player	NECBL team	Collegiate team
Most Valuable Player	Aaron Fera	Rhode Island	Georgia College
Outstanding Pro Prospect	Mark Malaska Mark Malaska Dennis Mark Malaska to Darlene and Dennis Malaska is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in and the Boston Red Sox in in Major League Baseball...	Danbury	Akron University
10th Player Award	Dan Moylan	Keene	North Carolina North Carolina North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
Defensive Player of the Year	Fritz Sanchez	Danbury	University of New Haven University of New Haven The University of New Haven is a private university that combines a liberal arts education with professional training. The university comprises five colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business, the Tagliatela College of Engineering, the Henry C...
Outstanding Pitcher	Kevin Olore	Middletown	Marist Marist College Marist College is a private liberal arts college on the east bank of the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, New York. The site was established in 1905 by Marist Brothers, and the college was chartered in 1929...
Outstanding Relief Pitcher	Brian Houdek	Torrington	Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. It was formally founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier....