At long last, a spring break miracle was brought to us. The Little East Conference has released the schedule for spring sports. This means that we will finally be getting sports back on campus after being a full year removed from any competitive sports at UMass Boston. 

The official season will start on April 13, 2021, when the men’s baseball and lacrosse team will take on the University of Southern Maine. Then the women’s softball will start their season on April 17, 2021, when they take on Castleton University.

So, with the spring season right around the corner, I felt it would be fitting to do a preview for each of the spring sports teams that will be competing just a month from now.

Men’s baseball

Before the 2020 season was cancelled due to Covid, the UMass Boston men’s baseball team was rolling with a 3–1 record. None of the games they were able to play last season were against teams from the Little East Conference. With that in mind, it will be tough to gauge how the UMass Boston men’s baseball team will fare this season as they will only be playing teams from their own conference. However, things were trending well for the UMass Boston men’s baseball team a season ago, and it did look like they were poised to defend their conference title. It looks as if they will be geared to do the same this season.

Men’s lacrosse

Like the men’s baseball team, the UMass Boston men’s lacrosse team looked like an absolute wagon in the beginning of the 2020 season. They started out 4–0 before Covid abruptly ended their season. They also had yet to play anybody within their conference, but with the large deficits they were winning by, it is hard to say that they would not have been a force to be reckoned with the entire season. They were a force to be reckoned with a season ago, and I fully expect them to look great going into this spring.

Women’s Softball

Unfortunately for the UMass Boston women’s softball team, their season was never given an opportunity to begin a season ago. So, it is safe to say that softball will be a bit of a wild card this season. However, they did go 23–20 in 2019 while losing to Eastern Connecticut State University in the LEC tournament. However, a lot can change as only a fraction of that team will be returning for 2021. It will be interesting to see how the UMass Boston women’s softball team will fare this season.

One thing that I found extremely interesting about the schedule this year is that everyone will be playing teams that are only within their conference. This is the same blueprint that the NHL has been using for their season to limit the distance teams have to travel during COVID-19. Another reason I find this interesting is that having so many games against the same teams can slowly breed rivalries with certain teams. So, I would fully expect that the competition will be at a new level this spring as teams will not want to lose to the same team twice. With every team having to play each other twice (once for lacrosse), the importance of winning games will be at a new level this spring as one bad stretch could look detrimental in the standings.