| Lafayette Aviators | |
| League: | Prospect League |
| Division: | Eastern Conference – Northeast Division |
| Location: | Lafayette, Indiana |
| Stadium: | Loeb Stadium |
| Founded: | 2015 |
| League Champs: | 1 (2017) |
| Division Champs: | 2 (2017, 2021) |
| Former Names: | Jamestown Jammers (2015) |
| Former Ballparks: | Russell Diethrick Park (2015) Loeb Stadium (1940) (2016–2019) |
| Colors: | Navy & Yellow |
| Owner: | National Sports Services[1] |
| General Manager: | David Krakower |
| Manager: | Jamie Sailors |
The Lafayette Aviators are a summer collegiate baseball team based in Lafayette, Indiana. They are a member of the Eastern Conference of the summer collegiate Prospect League. The Aviators play at Loeb Stadium in Columbian Park in Lafayette, which opened in May 2021.
The Aviators won their first Prospect League championship in 2017, defeating the Butler BlueSox in a best-of-3 series.[2]
The Aviators play in the Prospect League's Eastern Conference – Northeast Division along with the Champion City Kings, Chillicothe Paints, and Johnstown Mill Rats.[3]
The Aviators franchise was originally based in Jamestown, New York, where it operated as the Jamestown Jammers during the 2015 season.[4] The Jammers' owners, Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based MKE Sports & Entertainment, opted to move its Prospect League team to Lafayette and establish a new Jammers team in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League in 2016,[5] with distance (Jamestown was well outside the Prospect League's Midwestern footprint while the PCPBL's footprint was much closer, in Central New York) being cited as the primary reason for the move.
Prior to the 2018 season, the team was sold to National Sports Services, through its subsidiary, Lafayette Family Entertainment LLC.[6]
The Aviators were supposed to play their 2020 season at Purdue University's Alexander Field while the original Loeb Stadium was torn down and replaced by a new ballpark;[7] however, the season was suspended when Purdue closed their athletic facilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
The team was finally able to welcome spectators to their season opener at their new stadium on June 1, 2021.[9]
| Season | Manager | Record | Win % | Division | GB | Post-season record | Post-season win % | Post-season result | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Anthony Barone | 27–33 | .450 | 4th | 11.0 | 0–0 | .000 | Did not qualify | as the Jamestown Jammers | |
| 2016 | Brent McNeil[10] | 30–30 | .500 | 3rd | 5.0 | 0–0 | .000 | Did not qualify | ||
| 2017 | Brent McNeil | 36–24 | .600 | 1st | – | 4–2 | .667 | Won West Division Championship (Terre Haute) Won Prospect League Championship (Butler) | Moved to West Division | |
| 2018 | Will Arnold[11] | 22–38 | .367 | 6th | 14.0 | 0–0 | .000 | Did not qualify | ||
| 2019 | Brent McNeil | 34–26 | .567 | 6th | 6.0 | 0–0 | .000 | Did not qualify | ||
| 2020 | Bailey Montgomery[12] | Season cancelled (COVID-19 pandemic) | ||||||||
| 2021 | Michael Keeran[13] | 41–18 | .695 | 1st | – | 3–2 | .600 | Won Wabash River Division Championship (Danville) Won East Conference Championship (Champion City) Lost Prospect League Championship (Cape) | ||
| Chris Willsey | 25–34 | .424 | 4th | 16.0 | 0–0 | .000 | Did not qualify | |||
| 2023 | Jamie Sailors | 28–29 | .491 | 3rd | 12.5 | 0–0 | .000 | Did not qualify | ||
| Jamie Sailors | 0–0 | .000 | 0–0 | .000 | ||||||
| Totals | 243–232 | .512 | 7–4 | .636 | ||||||