Sean Newcomb pitched briefly for Wareham in 2012 and 2013. He’s been a star this spring.Sean Newcomb started Wareham’s first game in the 2013 Cape Cod Baseball League season and tossed six scoreless innings, priming himself to become one of the stars of the Cape League summer. A case of mono kept him off the mount until July 7, though, and he only wound up pitching 22.1 innings.
This spring, Newcomb started Hartford’s first game of the 2014 college baseball season, but this time, he’s been on the mound every week since – and with a lot to show for it. Stardom has arrived.
Newcomb leads the nation with a 0.00 ERA. He’s 3-1 in six starts and has allowed just a single unearned run in 39.2 innings. He’s struck out 46 and while his walk total is a bit high at 19, he’s made up for it by allowing only 14 hits. Opponents are batting .111 against him.
Even before his torrid start, Newcomb was drawing plenty of attention. He lit up radar guns at Hartford’s scout day in the fall.
The 6’5 lefty is a native of Middleboro, Mass., which also produced Cape League star Tyler Horan, one of the leaders of Wareham’s 2013 title run.
Three years ago, Kyle Zimmer rode a strong season with Cotuit into a tremendous junior season at San Francisco and, ultimately, a spot in the Major League draft’s first round. His younger brother is on the same path so far. Bradley Zimmer won Playoff MVP honors as Cotuit won the Cape League championship last year, and now the junior outfielder is cementing himself as one of the nation’s best hitters. The San Francisco junior ranks in the top 20 nationally in batting average with a .430 mark. He’s also hit six home runs and driven in 20, both tops on his team. In some early projections by Baseball America, Zimmer was tabbed as a likely first-round pick and ranked as the second-best college hitter in the draft.
The other guy who left Cape Cod as an MVP is off to a solid start of his own. Max Pentecost, the league MVP with Bourne, is hitting .303 with three homers for Kennesaw State and should be one of the top available catchers in the June draft.
In case you missed the news from earlier this month, the 2014 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game has been moved from Saturday, July 26 to Sunday, July 27. Bourne’s Doran Park will host the game, and the original Saturday date would have conflicted with Bourne’s celebration of the Cape Cod Canal’s 100th anniversary.
Every Cape League team has now posted its 2014 roster. As you watch the college baseball season unfold, your most Cape League-heavy team is powerhouse LSU. The Tigers have 12 players on Cape rosters, spread across six different teams. Sophomore Alex Bregman, a likely first-round pick in 2015, is the leader of the crew. He’s on the Harwich roster, as he was last summer before he ended up with Team USA. Bregman is hitting .291 this year, perhaps a mild sophomore slump after his huge freshman season.
