The Full Story of the Newark Pilots
It All Begins in the Diamond
Colburn Park
The Newark Pilots are proud to call the historic Colburn Park their home.
Originally opened in the 1930s, the ballpark is named after Village of Newark trustee E. Douglass Colburn, and has been home to many professional and collegiate baseball teams over the past four decades.
Newark's minor league baseball team began as the Newark Co-Pilots. From 1968 to 1969, the Co-Pilots joined the New York-Penn League as affiliates of the Seattle Pilots. The team was the first professional team to play at Colburn Park.
From 1970-1978, the Co-Pilots became affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers and won the New York-Penn League Championship in 1975.
“Newark Pilots baseball – prepare for takeoff!”
The Newark Pilots, founded in 2010, are charter members of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) and began to play in the summer of 2011. In their first season of competition, the Pilots established themselves as one of the top summer collegiate baseball teams not only in upstate New York but in the entire northeast. In 2011, Newark upset the Amsterdam Mohawks in the three-game PGCBL Championship Series, taking the league’s inaugural title.
The Pilots have built a tradition of excellence on the diamond, qualifying for postseason play in each of the team’s first four seasons. In addition to capturing the 2011 PGCBL Championship, Newark also won the West Division Championship Series in 2014 and reached the league championship series for the second time. The Pilots also won the West Division regular-season title in 2014 with a 27-19 record.
Historic Colburn Park is the home for all Newark Pilots home games. Initially opened in the 1930s, Colburn Park served as the home for the Newark Co-Pilots and the Newark Orioles minor league teams from 1968 to 1987. The ballpark boasts one of the finest playing fields in the region and has undergone several renovations. Such improvements include a new left-field scoreboard, new seating, and a party deck down the left-field line.
Alumni of the Newark Pilots include MLB First-Year Player Draft picks Drew Hasler (White Sox, 2015), Steve Laurino (Orioles, 2015), Nick Parent (White Sox, 2013), Michael Saunders (Reds, 2012), Louis Silverio (White Sox, 2014), Luis Silverio (Diamondbacks, 2015), Kane Sweeney (Yankees, 2015), and Tim Locastro (Blue Jays, 2013). Pilots players have come from Division I programs including, but not limited to, Buffalo, Binghamton, BYU, Cal State Northridge, Central Connecticut State, Connecticut, Columbia, Cornell, Florida International, Houston Baptist, Kentucky, Marist, Maryland, Morehead State, Northeastern, Penn, Rutgers, Saint Joseph’s (Pa.), Samford, San Francisco, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and Virginia. Newark hurlers have won two PGCBL Pitcher of the Year awards, the first going to Dominick Ruscitti of Kutztown University in 2011 and Jayson Yano of Stevens Institute of Technology in 2014.
Over the team’s five seasons of competition, 24 players have been named All-PGCBL.
Over the years, Colburn Park has undergone several renovations.
Today, the most significant additions are the new left-field scoreboard, new lights, a new entranceway, a party deck down the left-field line, and new seats.
