Worcester Bravehearts


The Worcester Bravehearts are a summer collegiate baseball team based in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, that plays in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England starting in 2014. The team's home games are played at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field in Worcester.
The Bravehearts brought baseball back to Worcester for the first time since the Worcester Tornadoes franchise was disbanded in 2012.

Team history

The team was announced as a partnership with the College of the Holy Cross on September 30, 2013. The new team's name and logo was announced on December 2, 2013, selecting the name "Bravehearts". The "hearts" in the name refer to the heart on Worcester's city seal and nickname as the "Heart of the Commonwealth".
The team began its inaugural season on June 4, 2014, with a 3-1 win in Torrington, Connecticut against the Torrington Titans.
On August 14, 2014, the Bravehearts defeated the Martha's Vineyard Sharks 1-0 at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field to clinch the FCBL Championship.
In 2015, the Bravehearts started their title defense poorly, but a concluding 8-2 run in their last ten games got them into the playoffs as the sixth seed. They went on to repeat as league champions, defeating the Bristol Blues with a tenth-inning rally in the third game of the best-of-three championship series.
Worcester won the West Division with a league-best record of 37-18 during the 2016 regular season, and for the third straight season they advanced to the FCBL Championship Series, where they fell to the Nashua Silver Knights in two games.
Total attendance for Bravehearts games went up 18 percent in 2016. Averaging 2,230 spectators per game, the team ranked ninth nationally among total attendance for summer collegiate teams.
The Bravehearts won the final game of the 2017 regular season to earn a one-game, winner-moves-on-loser-goes-home game against the Wachusett Dirt Dawgs. The Bravehearts won, 9-2, that sent them to the semifinals against the Brockton Rox. Worcester won the first two of the best-of-three series, capping it off with a wild, 13-7, win on the road. For the fourth straight year – all four of their time in the league – the Bravehearts punched their ticket to the championship series, this time in a rematch against the Nashua Silver Knights. On August 12, Nashua completed the two-game sweep again with a 2-0 victory in Game 2 at Holman Stadium in Nashua.
The Bravehearts earned a share of the 2018 FCBL League championship, as the title was split between them and the Martha's Vineyard Sharks. The Bravehearts won Game 1, 10-6, on the Vineyard but lost Game 2, 4-2, at home. After rain washed out Game 3 of the FCBL Championship series at Vineyard Ballpark, league commissioner Chris Hall declared the Bravehearts and Martha’s Vineyard Sharks co-champions. The best-of-three series already had been delayed a day and many players’ flights home already had been booked. Postponing the game to the next day was not an option.
In June 2019, the team's owner said he believes the Bravehearts can remain in the market after the 2021 relocation of the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox.
Worcester finished the 2019 regular season with a 30-26 record. The Bravehearts beat the Pittsfield Suns in a one-game playoff. They then beat the Brockton Rox, 2-1, in the semifinals to make the championship series for the sixth time in six seasons. After beating the Bristol Blues, 2-1, in Game 1, Worcester won Game 2 in Bristol, 12-2, to win its fourth FCBL title in six years.