6/18/2026

Oak Island Loggerheads (Old North State League) @ Bill Smith Park (Southport, NC)

The Old North State League's most lowkey team (at least from my experience)

26 IN 26 STOP 23

*As a side note, this is the 100th post on this blog!¹

I talked about a team called the Brunswick Surfin Turfs a few days ago, but for those who didn't see that: they were a team in the Old North State League that was founded in 2022 with their first season of play being 2023; they had the best record in the league that year, but then "split" into two teams in 2025. One of those teams is the Shallotte Shallywags, and today, I'm going to discuss the other team: the Oak Island Loggerheads.

Much like the Shallywags, the Loggerheads - named after a species of turtle - don't exactly have a lot of "history" yet. However, in 2025 (i.e. when both teams made their debuts), the Loggerheads had the better postseason: they won the playoffs for the division the two teams play in (the ONSL does its playoffs similar to the NHL where each division has "its own tournament", then the winners face off for the title).

Their home is a local community baseball park (as opposed to a high school field like Shallotte). There are several fields here, but most of them are Little League fields, while the Loggerheads play (rather appropriately) at a bigger field. As a community field, there are much fewer amenities than most stadiums I've talked about on this blog...but that doesn't mean that there are none.

In general, I'd describe this place as having a "Cape Cod Baseball League-esque" feel (except you have to pay to get in): the only seats here are small risers (with padded chair backs available for a bit more than general admission), and most fans bring lawn chairs and plop them right up against the fences (which extend around the whole field and affect the view in a rather unfortunate way). However, one thing found here that is nowhere to be found in the CCBL: alcohol! A picnic area down the first base/left field line features a stand which sells alcohol, and as this game was on "Thirsty Thursday", the team had a dollar beer special. Also, just like the Shallywags, the first and third base paths are grass instead of dirt.

My original thought was to go after the Myrtle Beach Pelicans game (as both the Loggerheads and Shallywags were home that day, and Oak Island is further). Unfortunately, that Pelicans game started at 6:30, and with both ONSL games starting at 6, there was no way I'd be able to make it (you have to remember that this was my ONLY shot at seeing the Pelicans). Thankfully, the Loggerheads had other home games during the week, and so to accommodate visits to the other two ONSL teams, I ended up at this game - a game the Loggerheads ended up losing BADLY (as in they got mercy rule'd). I should also note that it felt like some of the fans here were honestly quite rowdy: one had an airhorn that they sounded VERY often, and another was yelling at players all game (moreso the Loggerheads - despite wearing a Loggerheads shirt).

One other note: the Loggerheads have this thing called "Boco Ball" that they debuted this year, and I ALMOST went to see it, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it (partially as I would have not have been able to visit the Ghost Crabs - who, coincidentally, won THIS particular game² - had I gone). Boco Ball is a "variant" of baseball which has a strict 2-hour time limit and has an unusual rule for a foul ball on a full count, but outside of that it didn't seem all that different from regular baseball - though it DOES feature a "revived" version of the Brunswick Surfin Turfs in the "Glowmojis/Party Animals" role.

MERCH

When I checked the team's Instagram, they mentioned that player hats - i.e. the thing I am looking for MOST when I visit these summer league teams - were available online at one point (as they're usually a popular and hard-to-get item from summer league teams³). Unfortunately, I was two months late for preorders...

Instagram is also where I learned of a local store that sells Loggerheads merchandise. I mentioned this when I visited the Ghost Crabs, but teams in the ONSL have a partner program where local merchants are encouraged to partner with teams to sell merchandise, and for the Loggerheads, one of their partners is a local sporting goods store that specializes in fishing gear. I decided to check out the store a few days before going to the game⁴, and said store had player hats and jerseys.

At the game itself, merch was sold in a trailer run by another local store that partners with the team. Unlike Shallotte and Cape Fear, no jerseys were available at this game, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had Brunswick Surfin Turfs hats (plus a few alternate identities) available! I should note, however, that these hats were Zephyr hats - a brand the ONSL seemingly moved away from some time ago, so it's likely that they're old stock (even if they weren't clearance priced)...

One other note: the team has a beer themed "alternate identity" (which I put in quotes as it's not an alt identity in the MiLB sense) known as the Oak Island Lagerheads (note the spelling). This includes a beer themed jersey, but for whatever reason, the team's "regular" jerseys have a "Lagerheads" script, and the beer themed jerseys say "Loggerheads" on them...