The Massachusetts city that hosted the first college baseball contest is welcoming back the two rivals this weekend that played in that game 150 years ago.

Williams and Amherst, the teams that played the first game under “Massachusetts rules” in 1859, will play Sunday at Pittsfield’s Waconah Park.

The teams’ regular-season-ending varsity game will air live at 1 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN360.com, then will be repeated three times on ESPNU – at 7 p.m. Monday, 7 p.m. Tuesday and noon May 13.

In 1959, Amherst challenged Williams to a baseball game under rules matching 13 players on each squad. It was contested on a square field, rather than a diamond. The “thrower” pitched from the middle of the square to a “striker,” or batter, standing midway between first base and fourth (or home) base.

Williams not only accepted the challenge to play ball, but challenged its rival to a chess match.

Before Sunday afternoon’s regular game, the two schools will reenact both the “Massachusetts rules” game – using period uniforms – and the chess match at 11 a.m.

Amherst won the July 1, 1859, baseball game – a 25-inning affair – by a 73-32 score, then won a day-long chess match July 2. (See the spring 2009 issue of NCAA Champion magazine for an account of the game.)

This year’s game will decide which of the two schools will host the New England Small College Athletic Conference championship tournament. Amherst won both of the squads’ two games earlier this season.

Other events are planned around Sunday’s game, including a free youth baseball clinic that will be presented Saturday by the College Baseball Hall of Fame and the Dan Duquette Sports Academy.

Duquette, an Amherst graduate who played football and baseball at the school, and former Williams baseball student-athlete Michael Barbera have played key roles in planning the anniversary game and related events.