Independence League Baseball


Independence League Baseball is a collegiate summer baseball league in the United States with teams playing in Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The league played its inaugural season in 2022 with ten teams and had eight teams for 2023. eight teams are listed for the 2024 season.

History

The league was announced in October 2021 with seven teams which were leaving the Expedition League:
For the 2022 season, the league added the Gem City Bison, the North Platte Plainsmen, and the Nebraska Prospects, a traveling team to balance the schedule. The Western Nebraska Pioneers were the champions of the inaugural season.
For the 2023 season, the Oahe Zap were founded in Pierre, South Dakota while the North Platte Plainsmen and the Western Nebraska Pioneers left the league to play their own independent schedules. In December 2022, the Casper Horseheads ceased operations after four years in the two leagues and the Canyon County Spuds announced their relocation from Caldwell, Idaho to Casper, Wyoming to become the Casper Spuds. In January 2023, the Gem City Bison announced that they were skipping the 2023 season, citing "ongoing challenges", and that they will be "working diligently" to return in 2024. In February 2023, the Sawtooth Sockeyes joined the league as an unaffiliated, travel only team to help balance the schedule.
The 2023 season also introduced a new format to the league playoffs. The new format split the league into two half-seasons. The winner of the first half would face off against the second half winner in a 5-game series. The Fremont Moo captured the first-half title, while the Casper Spuds would secure their playoff spot with a second-half run. The championship series came down to game five, winner-take-all, with the Fremont Moo winning the League Championship.
In October 2023, the Badlands Big Sticks left the league to join the Northwoods League for the 2024 season.
In October 2025, the Hastings Sodbusters announced they would be leaving to join the newly formed Diamond Baseball League.
the league has four teams as members for the 2026 season and three teams as unaffiliated, travel only teams. It isn't stated if the Plainsmen or Bison are connected to the same-named previous teams, nor is there anything said about the Sawtooth Sockeyes absence.

Teams

Current members

Former members

Membership timeline


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:1070 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:2022 till:2025
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#
Colors =
id:line value:black
id:Full value:rgb # Member of the League
id:Past value:rgb # Former Member of the League
PlotData =
width:15 textcolor:darkblue shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Orange from:2022 till:2024 text:Badlands Big Sticks
bar:2 color:Orange from:2022 till:end text:Canyon County/Casper Spuds
bar:3 color:Orange from:2022 till:2023 text:Casper Horseheads
bar:4 color:Orange from:2022 till:end text:Fremont Moo
bar:5 color:Orange from:2022 till:2023 text:Gem City Bison
bar:6 color:Orange from:2022 till:2025 text:Hastings Sodbusters
bar:7 color:Orange from:2022 till:end text:Nebraska Prospects
bar:8 color:Orange from:2022 till:2023 text:North Platte Plainsmen
bar:9 color:Orange from:2022 till:end text:Spearfish Sasquatch
bar:10 color:Orange from:2022 till:2023 text:Western Nebraska Pioneers
bar:11 color:Orange from:2023 till:end text:Oahe Zap
bar:12 color:Orange from:2023 till:2024 text:Sawtooth Sockeyes
bar:13 color:Orange from:2024 till:end text:Bison Baseball
bar:14 color:Orange from:2024 till:end text:Plainsmen Baseball
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2022
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: tabs:
text:^"Independence League Baseball membership history"

Map