We would like to again thank FLL Nation for patience and understanding amidst these unforeseen circumstances. Your Board members have been working tirelessly to ensure we provide every opportunity to bring our children back on the fields and maintain safety..

Based on feedback and many (many!) discussions amongst our board, we have decided to roll what would be a Spring/Summer season into a late Summer/Fall season with an estimated timeframe of August 17 through October 2020. We feel this will provide plenty of time for us to get all safety measures in place and plan what could be the best baseball experience our kids have ever had, even under such circumstances.

We have developed a planning committee to work out the details, but a high overview of our plan is to maintain the “Little League Age” of what everyone would have been earlier in the Spring. We expect to have a blend of our typical Spring and Fall seasons and plan to interleague with West Salisbury Little League allowing your children to play on our Fruitland fields as well as at West Salisbury Little League.

We will allow players to join us from leagues whose seasons were cancelled.  Those outside our Fruitland district will be able to play with us this year, but will need to return to their home league for the Spring 2021 season. Once we work out all the details we will be creating a new online registration and rolling all players who opted to play into that season.  Any families who had requested a credit will be able to use that credit for this or future seasons through Fall 2021. 

While the governor’s announcement last week did open things up a bit more, and the City of Fruitland approved games to be played starting Monday, June 15th, the board felt it was unfair to cut the spring season so short. Our safety committee is working to finalize the safety guidelines, install signage, and distancing reminders at our facilities. We want to make it a fun and safe season for our children and late summer/Fall seems to be the best option.

We understand that many children play multiple sports and that some may not be able to commit in the Fall.  If you had previously stated your child wanted to play, but feel the late Summer and Fall is not going to work, we will give you the chance to opt out much like we did with our previous intent form. Details will be forthcoming on that process. Like before, we plan to accept refund requests, credits, and donations.

We also wanted to take this opportunity to provide some transparency to our families. Running a Little League is a year-long process and planning starts for the next season as soon as the past season ends. With Opening Day planned for April 4th, and the Pandemic hitting in March, work had already begun at the fields to prepare for another wonderful season. Equipment was purchased, Concession repairs were made, supplies were purchased, dirt for the fields was purchased and delivered, Insurance was paid, and the field maintenance continued to be paid for to ensure our fields were kept in excellent condition.

Many do not know we are the home field of Fruitland Baseball Tournaments. We have players from travel teams across the country, and have even had some International teams, play on the very fields our children play ball. These tournaments provide a boost to our local economy, especially our Fruitland Little League economy.  We have not been able to have any tournaments on our fields, missing out on a lot of weekends that would have brought in several thousand dollars.

We also have year-round expenses such as utilities and maintenance. Please remember that we are a Non-Profit organization and what we do is all for the kids. We work tirelessly to ensure that we can continue to have a safe and fun environment for the kids and appreciate everyone’s understanding. This year we will not be able to do many of the fundraisers that we normally count on to bring money into our league to keep it running. We rely on these fundraisers, concessions, and our generous sponsors to help us along and it is just such a difficult time for all.

As we plan the details for the 2020 season, you will be hearing more from us very soon. 

Fruitland Little League