The Down East Bird Dawgs will begin play in 2025 and bring the Frontier League to 18 teams. (Image courtesy: FrontierLeague.com)

The Frontier League announced on Tuesday that the league will add another expansion team to begin play in 2025. The new club, the Down East Bird Dawgs will play out of Kinston, N.C., and bring the league’s team total to 18.

The league announced earlier this month that it would be adding a team in Mississippi that will also begin play next season. That team’s name has not been determined, but it will play its home games at historic Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss.

The Down East team will play its home games at Grainger Stadium in Kinston, which first opened in 1949, and hosted professional and collegiate baseball for over 75 years and remains one of the oldest and most historic ballparks in professional baseball. The stadium also hosts the annual Freedom Classic NCAA baseball series between Navy and Air Force.

“We are excited to welcome the Down East Bird Dawgs to the Frontier League,” Frontier League commissioner Steve Tahsler said, in a statement released by the league. “Beginning with our first visit to Kinston this spring, we have been overwhelmed with the passion and commitment from Cam McRae, Bill Ellis, Susan Barrett, and Scott Alston to keep professional baseball in Grainger Stadium. Shari Massengill has a great baseball background and will be a quality addition to our roster of general managers.”

Cameron McRae, a business owner from North Carolina, will serve as the Bird Dawgs’ primary owner. McRae has been a part of Kinston baseball for over three decades, including being the original owner and primary investor of the Kinston Indians in 1994. His other business ventures include ownership and operation of 72 Bojangles’ Famous Chicken restaurants, a golf course, a convenience store, and many different management companies.

Shari Massengill will be the team’s general manager. Like McRae, Massengill has been associated with professional baseball in North Carolina and the Kinston ballclub since the 1990s.

She began as an office manager for the Indians before being promoted to general manager, where she served until 2010. She then served as the assistant general manager of the Gwinnett Stripers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, for nearly a decade. Massengill’s accolades in baseball include winning the Calvin Falwell Award as the top executive in the Carolina League, as well as being named the Rawlings Woman Executive of the Year in 2007.

The two new franchises bring the league to 18 teams, the largest total in its history. The expansion also marks the league’s first expansion into the deep south, with the previous southernmost team being the Evansville Otters.

Tahsler also announced a new scheduling format for the 2025 season. Instead of a two-division model, the league will revert to the 2021 setup; 2 conferences with 4 divisions.

The division set up has not been finalized yet, but it is believed that the Mississippi team will play in the Western Division and Down East will be in the Eastern Division.

FrontierLeague.com contributed to this story.