CENTRE COUNTY — The 2025 Centre County Baseball League just completed an extremely weather-challenged regular season, but all of that is done, and it’s time for the playoffs.
The league announced its First Round pairings on Monday, July 7, and the games are set to begin on Thursday, July 10, at the homes of the higher seeds.
The No. 1 seed this year is Howard after the Hawks completed a stellar season, and they will receive a first-round bye. The other seeds, from two through seven, will be in action this week.
Traditionally, the CCBL’s First Round has not been a breeze for even the most highly seeded teams. The series are best-of-three and anything can happen in a short series, and almost every year, it does.
Here is this week’s lineup:
NO. 2 SPIKE ISLAND PIRATES VS NO. 7 MILESBURG
- July 10, 6 p.m.
- Philipsburg
The Pirates are the defending champions and finished the regular season just one-half game behind Howard with a 13-2 record.
The Spikes will come into the game with a 10-game winning streak and are highly motivated to repeat as the CCBL Champs.
The Pirates are solid in all three phases — hitting, pitching and defense — and will present problems in any series.
The Milesburg Iron Kings are new to the league this year and took some time to get acclimated, but they did finish with three victories.
Milesburg can score runs, but they gave up double figures in their last five contests.
As in every First Round series, Game 1 will be very important.
NO. 3 BLANCHARD VS NO. 6 SPRING CREEK
- July 10, 6 p.m.
- Blanchard
The Blanchard Bees finished the regular season 12-4 and are just one year away from consecutive CCBL Championships.
That lineup is still very much intact, with some new faces, and the Bees will not be an easy out.
The Bees won four of their last six games with the two losses coming to No. 1 Howard and No. 2 Spike Island.
Spring Creek finished 4-12 in the regular season and one game ahead of No. 7 Milesburg.
The Shockers can score runs, but they also gave up double-figure scored in four of their last five games.
The series will begin in Blanchard on Thursday, July 10.
NO. 4 LEWISTOWN FOXPRO VS NO. 5 SPRING MILLS
The FoxPro and Braves battled the top seeds and hung tough all season.
Lewistown finished with nine wins and four wins in its last six outings.
On Sunday, July 6, the FoxPro just escaped with a 9-8 victory over Spring Mills, and that game may be a foreshadowing of this series.
The Braves were two games behind Lewistown in the regular season, and they would like nothing better than to advance into the Quarterfinals.
