Mainers’ Lops named New England Collegiate Baseball League Manager of the Year

SANFORD, Maine — The New England Collegiate Baseball League named head coach Nic Lops as the Joel Cooley Manager of the Year for the 2022 baseball season.

“Nic is a well-deserving winner for the Joel Cooney award,” Mainers General Manager Aaron Izaryk said. “He has an innate ability to not only relate to players, but motivate them while making them better and this summer was a showcase of that.”

Lops recently concluded his second season as the team’s skipper, leading the Mainers to a 22-22 record, good enough for second place in the Northern Division. This comes after the team began its 2022 campaign with a 1-9 record in the first 10 games. The Mainers finished the remainder of the season 21-13, while locking in the sixth and final playoff spot with a win against the Keene Swamp Bats on the final day of the season.

“There will be much made of the slow start in the first 10 games of the season,” Izaryk said. “But the resolve, communication skills and player-centered philosophy that Nic possesses is a key to why the Mainers turned a slow start into a playoff berth.”

The Mainers upset No. 3 Coastal Division champion Newport in the opening wild card playoff game, 9-7, for a trip to the league semifinals against No. 1 Vermont in a best-of-three series. After dropping game one, Lops' lineup shut out the Mountaineers in game two at home, 5-0, to force a game three. The Mainers dropped the final contest, but stood as one of four remaining teams in the NECBL.

Lops is no stranger to the Manager of the Year award, having taken home a similar honor for the Yankee Small College Conference this past spring as head coach for Southern Maine Community College where he led the SeaWolves to a 25-13 regular season record and a trip to the USCAA Small College World Series.

For more information about the Sanford Mainers and any off-season announcements, visit www.sanfordmainers.com.