2026 ORWBL World Series Preview

The stage is set for the 2026 ORWBL World Series as we will see the New Carlisle Newts take on the Maple City Magic in a matchup between the league's two most storied ballclubs. This will be the 5th World Series meeting between New Carlisle and Maple City who are each in search of their record 5th ORWBL Title.

There is a ton of history in this matchup as New Carlisle hoisted their 1st World Series trophy in 2013 after beating the Maple City Magic (4-2). That opened up the floodgates for the Newts who would end up winning 3 titles over a 4 year span. They won their 3rd title in 2016 after sweeping Maple City (4-0) in the late summer classic.

In 2017, the tide shifted to Maple City who would end up up winning their 1st ORWBL World Series title (4-1). After struggling to compete in the rivalry, Maple City found their footing as they reeled off a record 4 straight championships through 2020. The Magic won their 3rd straight title in 2019 (4-1) over New Carlisle before winning their 4th and most recent title in 2020 against Elkhart.

The Magic made it back to a 6th straight World Series in 2021 before getting swept by the Granger Panthers who hoisted their 1st ORWBL title. While Maple City has not been back since, New Carlisle ended up winning their 4th ORWBL World Series title in 2024 over the Mill Pond Pink Pandas. The Newts also made the World Series in 2023 before falling to the South Bend Truffle Butter.

After countless battles between 2013-2019 in both the regular season and Postseason, the league's most storied rivalry has become a thing of the past as these two franchises have not met up once over the past 5+ years in ORWBL play. That will all change this weekend as the greatest rivalry in ORWBL history will be renewed for Part 5.

Both teams will look much different this weekend compared to the last World Series meeting between the two sides in 2019. While much of New Carlisle's core remains in tact from the 2019 team, they have since added Tyler Shupert, Brett Mason, Kody Webb, Aidan Cotter, and DJ Hill as this is one of the deepest teams in all of ORWBL.

It was a true breakout season for Brett Mason who finished 4th in the National League MVP vote while finishing as the runner up for the National League Gold Glove Award. Mason's ascendence into stardom played a massive role in New Carisle's dominant 25-5 season as he will be a National League MVP candidate for a long time to come. He finished the 2026 season as the Newts leader in every hitting category with Manager Tyler Shupert finishing 2nd in every category.

Of course, New Carlisle will be relying on their Veteran Stars like Garrett Curless, Matt Soos, and Scott Soos who all have an insane amount of World Series experience together over the years. After playing in only 12 games in 2026, Garrett Curless should be fresh as the the New Carlisle star would love nothing more than to send off Migley Field with a World Series title. With Scott Soos and Garrett Curless both rested, it will be interesting to see how their World Series lineup shakes out as 2026 National League Manger of the Year winner Tyler Shupert will be making his World Series managerial debut.

Of course, the Newts will rely on Starting Pitcher Matt Soos who finished the regular season with a 20-2 record as he has blossomed into one of the greatest pitchers in league history over the past few years. He has been extremely tough to hit as the crafty veteran was the only 20 game winner in all of ORWBL this year.

All in all, it has been a true storybook season for league's charter franchise who are now just 4 wins away from winning their record 5th ORWBL World Series title. Prior to the year the Newts announced that this would be Migley Field's Farewell Season and they now have the opportunity to close out Migley by celebrating their 5th ORWBL World Series title at the friendly confines over the Maple City Magic.

As for the Maple City Magic, this team could not look too much more different from the team that we last saw play New Carlisle in the 2019 World Series. Alex Friedman, Wes Ellis, Drew Luther, and Greg Gierling are the only remaining players from that 2019 roster as half of this 2026 roster will be making their World Series debut. After getting swept by the Panthers in the 2021 World Series, the Magic have not been back since as they struggled mightily to make it out of the American League the last 4 years.

In 2021 and 2022 they ran into the South Bend Truffle Butter who would end up winning back to back World Series titles before retiring the SBTB franchise. The Truffle Butter core then brought the Elkhart BFAM back as Maple City suffered two consecutive playoff exits at the hands of BFAM.

Before the 2026 season, we saw the Magic make a big splash by bringing in Walter Griffin III, Brandon Terry, and Josh Trim after BFAM announced that the franchise would be retiring. Those 3 quickly helped propel Maple City back to the top of the American League as the Magic are back in the World Series for the 1st time since 2021.

The 2026 Magic also have Ethan Bumgardner who has become one of the top young stars in all of ORWBL since joining the league at age 16. Now in his 4th season, Bumgardner took another step forward as The Kid led ORWBL in AVG (.608) and Runs (88) while finishing 2nd in HR (71) and 4th in RBI (88).

The trio of Griffin III, Terry, and Bumgardner has been lethal as they finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in HR. All 3 players finished inside the Top 5 of every hitting category while Wes Ellis and Josh Trim each finished inside the Top 8 on the American League HR Leaderboard. The Magic will also rely on their pitching staff of Walter Griffin III, Wes Ellis, and Greg Gierling who all had great season on the bump. They also received consistent production throughout the year from Collin Babcock, Alex Friedman, Jake Osburn, Nate Arndt, and Kevin May.

The 2026 ORWBL World Series will begin on Saturday at Magic Park with Games 1, 2, & 3 starting at 1pm ET, 12 pm CT. The series will then shift to Migley Field for Games 4-7 as one of these teams will hoist their 5th World Series title in what will be the 5th World Series meeting between the Newts and Magic.