By John Bohnenkamp
The Burlington Bees will open the 2023 Prospect League season at home on May 31 against the Quincy Gems.
The league’s schedule was released this week.
The Bees have back-to-back home games to open the season — they play on June 1 against the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp.
The 2023 schedule will feature 17 teams playing 60 games in 67 days in the college wood-bat league. The league has teams in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.
Two new teams will join the league this season — the Jackson (Tenn.) Rockabillys and a team in Marion, Ill., that has not been named. The West Virginia Miners will be dormant this season.
The Bees will play in the Western Conference’s Great River Division again this season. The division includes the Gems, Pistol Shrimp and Clinton LumberKings. The Rockabillys and the Marion team will play in the Western Conference’s Prairie Land Division along with the Alton River Dragons, Cape Catfish, and O’Fallon Hoots.
The Normal CornBelters, who were in the same division with the Bees in the last two seasons, move to the Eastern Conference’s Wabash River Division along with the Danville Dans, Terre Haute REX, and Springfield Lucky Horseshoes.
Champion City (Ohio), Chillicothe (Ohio), Johnstown (Pennsylvania), and Lafayette (Indiana) are in the Ohio Valley Division.
Among the other features of the Bees’ schedule:
• They will play a six-game homestand from June 24-29, with single games against Illinois Valley and Jackson and two games against O’Fallon and Springfield.
• The Bees will have a July 3 home game against Clinton. They will play on July 4 at Clinton.
• They will play a seven-games-in-six-days road trip from July 11-16 with the first road trips to Champion City and Johnstown, a single game in Lafayette, and a doubleheader in Normal.
• They play six of their last seven games at home.
The home schedule (all games at 6:30 p.m. unless noted):
May 31 — Quincy Gems. June 1 — Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp. June 6 — Quincy Gems. June 7 — Normal CornBelters. June 9 — Springfield Lucky Horseshoes. June 15 — Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp. June 16 — Cape Catfish. June 24 – Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp. June 25 — O’Fallon Hoots, 2 p.m. June 26 — O’Fallon Hoots. June 27 — Springfield Lucky Horseshoes. June 28 — Jackson Rockabillys. June 29 — Springfield Lucky Horseshoes. July 1 — Jackson Rockabillys. July 3 — Clinton LumberKings. July 5 — Danville Dans. July 7 — Quincy Gems. July 8 — Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp. July 10 — Normal CornBelters. July 17 — Quincy Gems. July 18 — Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp. July 25 — Clinton LumberKings. July 26 — Clinton LumberKings. July 27 — Alton River Dragons. July 28 — Alton River Dragons. July 30 — Southern Illinois. July 31 — Southern Illinois (doubleheader), 5:30 p.m. August 3 — Clinton LumberKings. August 4 — Clinton LumberKings. August 5 — Quincy Gems.