All four playoff games were postponed due to rain yesterday. The weather still looks a little iffy today, but hopefully mother nature will cooperate.
In the meantime, if you haven’t seen the Enterprise article about baseballs on the Cape that’s been going around, check it out. Turns out, the balls really do seem to be different.
In other news, Harwich’s Phillip Ervin was named the 2012 Cape Cod League MVP yesterday. Ervin was the story of the first half of the season, and though he cooled off a little bit, he still finished with a .323 batting average, 11 home runs and 31 RBI.
How is Ervin’s 0.323/11/31 better than Tyler Horan’s 0.342/16/40? Or Sean Manaea’s legendary season?
Results from Opening Day of the fifth annual Cape Cod DICE Baseball League:
Chris Sale (Fla. Gulf Coast) pitched six shutout innings but Falmouth rallied for three runs off YD closer Tyler Burgoon (Michigan) in a 3-1 victory at Red Wilson Field. Todd Cunningham (Jacksonville), A.J. Pollock (Notre Dame), and Cliff Pennington (Texas A&M) each had two hits for the Commodores. Austin Wates (Va. Tech) had two hits for YD but left the game with an injury in the fifth inning.
Elsewhere
Dan Slania (Notre Dame) got Brandon Trinkwon (UCSB) on a game-ending pop up with the bases loaded to preserve Cotuit’s 6-2 win over Hyannis. James Simmons (UC Riverside) yielded only one run in 7.1 innings for the win, while Justin Smoak (South Carolina) doubled, homered, and drove in five runs for the Kettleers.
Chatham got five shutout innings from Chris Lambert (Boston College) in a 6-1 win at Wareham. Todd Frazier (Rutgers) hit a three-run homer for the Anglers, while Andy LaRoche (Grayson Country) homered for the Gatemen’s only run.
Shawn Seibert (Arkansas) gave up one run over five innings and Evan Rutter (Rice) and Jarred Santos (UNC Greensboro) pitched four scoreless innings of relief in Brewster’s 5-1 win over defending champion Orleans. Jedd Gyorko (West Virginia) had two hits and Aaron Bates (NC State) homered for the Whitecaps.
In a dice baseball first, Bourne got first-inning grand slams from Colin Moran (UNC) and Marc Krauss (Ohio) in a 17-0 rout of Harwich. Jordan Henry (Ole Miss) and Travis Jankowski (Stony Brook) each had four hits for the Braves, while Brad Lincoln (Houston) and Kevin Landry (William & Mary) combined for the shutout.
What to Watch
In a match-up of unbeatens, perennial All-Star Andrew Miller (UNC) will take on the improved Cotuit lineup at Veterans Field. Casey Hudspeth (South Florida) will pitch for the Kettleers.