Brewster leadoff hitter Andrew Toles, a freshman at Tennessee, has the most at-bats in the league.
He also has the most hits.
Toles is 8-for-18 so far for an average of .444. He’s also scored three runs and stolen three bases. He may not continue to lead the league in at-bats or hits, but I’d bet he’ll stay in the leadoff spot.
Toles should be an interesting player to watch. He hit only .270 for Tennessee this year but stole 21 bases. He was a fourth-round pick out of high school last year.
I keep waiting to see Matt Purke’s name pop up. It might not be happen, but I’ve read speculation in several places that Purke might take the same route as Anthony Ranaudo last summer. Like Ranaudo, Purke — a former first-round pick who was draft-eligible as a sophomore — battled injuries this year at TCU, dropping him from first-round consideration. Purke ended up going in the third round to Washington, and if he’s healthy and looking to prove himself, I imagine the Cape would be the destination. We’ll see what happens.
Brandon Thomas and Kyle Wren both had strong seasons at Georgia Tech this spring, and they’re off to as fast a start as anybody this summer. Thomas is 6-for-12 for Wareham, best in the league, while Wren is 6-for-13 for Cotuit.
As usual, the early part of the season has been full of very good pitching performances. Twenty-one pitchers have seen action without allowing a run. Of that group, 16 have started a game. Luke Farrell of Wareham, Jon Moscot at Harwich and Dace Kime of Chatham have each gone seven shutout innings. Kime, a Louisville freshman who was an eighth-round pick last year, struck out eight and didn’t walk anybody in his start.
Falmouth’s Andrew Heaney has the best single-game strikeout performance thus far, with 10 in a hard-luck loss last night. Heaney struck out 51 in 67 innings this spring for Oklahoma State.
Several familiar names from past summers are making unexpected return trips. Two-year Wareham pitcher Keith Bilodeau, a Sagamore native who was drafted in the 24th round this year out of Maine, is now on the Chatham roster. LSU’s Tyler Hanover, who spent the last two summers with Y-D, is back with the Red Sox again on a temporary contract. Hanover was drafted in the 40th round this year. Nevada’s Shon Roe is back with Orleans.
Brewster’s Taylor Davis has had an RBI in every game and leads the league with seven. Last year’s season leader was Jordan Ribera with 26, so Davis is well ahead of the curve at this point. Davis, who just finished his junior year at Morehead State, was not drafted this year, even though he hit .414 with 13 homers.
Have you heard anything about Matt Purke since the draft? I casually look around every once in a while but haven’t seen his name or heard anything about him.
I haven’t heard anything either. If he was going to pitch somewhere, I think it would have been on the Cape. That must not have been the plan.