About the League

ECABL History

The East Carolina Amateur Baseball League was born from a conversation between Mike Soares and Doug Amerson in 2015. They wanted to create a fun and exciting baseball league for adults in eastern North Carolina. Kenny Matthews became the third founding member in November 2015, and the three men planned the 2016 inaugural season.

The 2016 season began in April with Soares as the league's first commissioner. The league consisted of three teams as the the Cubs, Pirates and Braves took the field for the ECABL. The first game was played at West Craven Park, but most games during the first year were played at Creekside Park. Now the league uses the historic Kafer Park as its home park, but Creekside is still used for some rain out make-up games, and it will be used in the future as the league grows. 

The Orioles joined the league part of the way through the first season and won the championship that year.

More than 50 players took the field the first year, and the league has seen an increase in the number of players each year.

The goal established by the founding members was to provide a competitive, fun, adult baseball league that would include more than eight teams and enough players to divide the league into two age divisions: an 18-39 division and a senior division of 40 and older. That is still the primary goal of the current board of directors.

Soares maintained the commissioner duties for the first three seasons before stepping down following the 2018 season. Soares died in 2019 after a battle with brain cancer. Amerson was elected commissioner prior to the 2019 season and was re-elected for the 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons. Mark McKillop was elected commissioner for the 2024 season.

In the Summer of 2022, the ECABL created a 35-and-older Division with two teams that played eight games on Wednesday nights. The 35+ Division expanded in the fall to three teams and a 10-game season. In 2023 the 35+ Division expanded to four teams, and the Orioles won the first division championship.