The Inter-Town Baseball league is comprised of teams from 8 Massachusetts towns and 1 New Hampshire town.  Boys and girls from Byfield/Newbury, Georgetown, Groveland, Merrimac, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury, West Newbury and Seabrook, NH between the ages of 9 and 12 play in two divisions.  The minors division plays on a 46/60 little league regulation diamond and the majors division plays on a 50/70 diamond.  The goal of the majors division is to better prepare the young players for their transition into Babe Ruth where they will play on a 60/90 major league regulation diamond.  Each division also hosts an All Star game midway through the Spring season.  The Inter-Town baseball league offers youth players a competitive environment, but most importantly a place for them to have fun and learn the art of baseball.

Hi Baseball Families,

First and foremost, thanks to all of you for playing a role in getting our kids back on the field.  While this season is definitely unique, the baseball itself has been great and there have already been lots of good games and MOST IMPORTANTLY it has been awesome seeing the kids smiling and competing…that is why we play!.  The coaches and players are working hard to refresh their baseball skills and in learning a whole new set of precautions and changes to our game due to this unprecedented COVID situation.  We have had lots of eyes on our return to play and for the most part, everyone is doing their best to take all the necessary precautions that ITBL laid out prior to resuming play.

We will  continue to ask all our players, coaches, and parents to practice social distancing when possible.  Our spectator areas have been designed to allow for our fans to maintain social distance, so we are asking all our fans to keep families socially distant from one another.  In cases where you can’t be socially distant, we ask that you wear a mask.  This is the one area we have received some constructive feedback and we want to do everything in our power to ensure that we are allowed to have spectators throughout the season.  Also, we respectfully request that you only bring immediate family members to the games.  Again, we know that is a big ask, but social distancing and masks are guidelines issued by the state and the guidelines that we MUST follow in order to stay in compliance and to allow us to keep our season rolling.  Finally, we further request that you do not allow your players to head down to the park to watch their friends play.  As much as we love that they want to be there and hang out at the park with their friends, it is not proper for them to be there during COVID times.

Finally, just a reminder that we are taking direction from various levels of government.  Based on that, we are following quarantine rules as it relates to travel.  If your player has travelled to a state that requires quarantine upon return, we expect that you will follow those guidelines.  We need your help to make this work and to keep our league safe for your player and all the other players.  Details on travel can be located here: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/travel-information-related-to-covid-19

Thanks again for all your support, this would not be possible without all of you!

ITBL BOD

Dear Baseball Families,

First and foremost, we hope you are all well and safe during these trying times in our society.  With continued uncertainty around COVID-19, we know many of you are wondering if and when there will be a baseball season.  As you can imagine, the towns that make up the Inter Town Baseball League (ITBL) continue to review all the guidelines being issued by the state (Phased Opening), and return to play details being discussed and released by Massachusetts, other surrounding states, local towns, and baseball youth governing bodies.  Based on all that information we are happy to report that ITBL has voted again to move forward with our 2020 season.  Our season will be contingent on our state and towns moving into Phase 2 and 3  per the current schedule issued by Governor Baker.  Furthermore, while things are looking positive, we will also need our towns to fully open fields and approve our permits to play baseball this season.  All the towns are currently working with the appropriate town and local representatives and are reporting that they feel confident that if things continue to progress as they currently are, we should be able to resume baseball activities at some point in Phase 2 with games beginning in Phase 3.

The ITBL Board has been hard at work detailing our return to play plan.  Along with state and local government approvals, our return to play is contingent upon our ITBL towns implementing additional COVID-19 playing rules and precautions to enforce mask wearing, social distancing, and disinfection where appropriate.  While we will be asking coaches to wear masks, we will not require the players to wear masks while on the field (players should wear a mask when off the field and unable to be socially distant).  Parents, spectators, and others will be asked to stay in certain viewing areas and to maintain social distance and/or wear masks.  To be as transparent and open as possible we wanted to share some of the new rules and regulations that will  be required to allow us to return to our fields.  The new ITBL return to play rules can be found HERE; (Note: there may still be some minor modifications as we learn more from the state and local officials and work through the mechanics of some of these rules).  We thought it was important to provide them to all baseball families so they could read, review and understand the important safety precautions that we will be taking this season.

We have had many conversations as a Board about the 2020 season and the fact that it will not be business (or baseball) as usual.  Implementing and enforcing these new policies put in place to protect our players, coaches, parents, and spectators will be challenging, but each of our towns agreed that although it will be hard, we need to ensure SAFETY FIRST.  With that being said, we need the help and support of all our Families.  We will not be successful if parents are not willing to help us enforce these rules with their players and willing to follow these rules while attending games.  If a coach or league official asks for your support during a game either moving to a new area or asking for more social distancing or mask wearing, we ask that you please be supportive of these volunteers who are trying to ensure that our season is successful.  This season will be different and we all need to accept that if we want to return to play.  We urge and encourage you to work closely with your town league and your player’s coach to see how you can help make this season a success.  Ultimately, if we are unable to adhere to the guidelines that we put in place, we will need to cancel the season.  WE NEED YOUR HELP!

At this point, Phase 2 of the States reopening is set for next week.  Phase 2 does allow for small team practices to begin (assuming your town fields are open) with games not being allowed until Phase 3 (end of June/start of July).  We are beginning the process of drafting our schedules with games to begin after the 4^th of July.  Our season will run through mid-August.  Our current plan is to play a 12 game season, followed by playoffs.  In general, our teams will play 3 games per week (either Monday - Wednesday - Friday or Tuesday - Thursday - Sunday). Ultimately, our goal is to allow our players to just get out on the field, play some baseball and have some fun!

We hope you are all as excited as we are to get back out on the field!  Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.  Our ITBL Board can be reached at   or you can reach out directly to your individual town baseball Board of Directors.

Thanks and see you on the field!

-ITBL BOD