Brave New World

On January 30 at 4:17 p.m., I printed out an early version of Bourne’s 2009 roster, stapled the two pages together and set out looking for stars, for names I recognized. There were quite a few, and several months later, when I started matching those names with college stats, it became clear pretty quickly: a lot of the talent that would cross the bridges in 2009 would be stopping in Bourne — and, quite possibly, starting down the road to a championship.

But there was a detour.

Actually, a lot of them.

Blake Forsythe and Tyler Holt, two of the best hitters Bourne would have coming in, were invited to Team USA. So were Drew Pomeranz, Cody Wheeler and Alex Wimmers, perhaps the three best pitchers. Anthony Rendon, maybe the best freshman in the nation, would skip the summer with an injury.

The shuffling continued. Wimmers eventually made it but he was Bourne’s only Team USA invitee who did. The rest stayed with the national team, and in addition to those guys, six other players changed their summer plans. Five more made only brief appearances with the Braves.

If you’ve lost count, that’s 15 players on a roster of 30.

And that road to a championship? You had to wonder if the Braves would even find the on-ramp.

Two months later, it’s safe to say they found it. The Braves clinched their first-ever Cape League championship yesterday in Cotuit, beating the Kettleers 5-1 to sweep the title series.

In doing so, they’ve turned all those gaps into a back-story, a footnote. They’re a defining characteristic, yes, but only because they’re gaps that were filled.

And filled perfectly.

Need an ace? There’s an unsigned third-round pick named Bryan Morgado.

Need a slugger? Go get a draft-snubbed veteran. Name’s Kyle Roller.

A sweet-swinger? Rob Segedin. Team USA alternate, looking for a home.

An infield mainstay? Try Raynor Campbell, 2008 Cape League All-Star.

We could continue to play this game. The list goes on. It’s what the Braves had to do.

The amazing thing is how well they did it.

It’s like they pulled rabbits out of hats. Bourne magic. Morgado was one of the league’s best strikeout artists and an anchor at the top of the rotation. Roller turned into the league MVP, with numbers the likes of which haven’t been seen on the Cape in 10 years. Segedin and Campbell were key pieces to the puzzle.

There were speed bumps along the way. It wasn’t always a smooth ride. There were the fog-outs and the rainouts, the summer that had no rhythm. At one point in July, the Braves lost five straight games.

But through it all, the replacements like Roller and the mainstays like Pierre LePage jelled into a cohesive and consistent unit. By the end of the season, they were clicking. They won their last five regular-season games.

When their playoff journey began, the Braves hit an early road block. They trailed Orleans 2-0 in the first game of their semifinal series. Through eight innings, they had two hits. One inning — and one never-to-be-forgotten rally — later, the Braves had a 3-2 victory and 1-0 lead in the series.

They never looked back.

The Braves smashed Orleans 8-0 to sweep the semis then buried Cotuit 15-5 in a fog-shortened game one. Yesterday, they capped it off with a little of that Bourne magic, winning 5-1 despite getting out-hit 8-5. Pierre LePage drove in two runs, finishing the playoffs with six. He had 14 in the regular season. Kyle Roller had a hit for the fourth straight game. He finished the playoffs with a .500 average and a well-deserved second MVP award.

There were other stars, too. Ben Klafczynski had an up-and-down summer but hit .286 in four playoff games. Chris Wallace, who wasn’t on that initial roster but became the starting catcher, also hit .286. Stefen Romero, whose mid-season slump had a lot to do with Bourne’s mid-season slump, hit .400 in the playoffs.

And then there was the pitching. In four playoff games, the Braves allowed five earned runs. Four of them came in one game against Cotuit, the game where they scored 15 and didn’t need much pitching help. In the other three games, Bourne pitchers allowed one earned run on 16 hits. They struck out 30. Morgado, Wimmers, Seth Maness and Eric Cantrell delivered outstanding starts. And the bullpen that shined all year continued on the same path. Aside from the three runs allowed by the pen in the blowout, Bourne’s relievers — with Logan Billbrough, Justin Poovey and Kevin Munson leading the way — didn’t allow an earned run in 10 innings of work.

All those pieces created a dominant playoff performance. Their motto was “Believe” and they certainly did. The Braves are the third team in a row to sweep through the playoffs and win the title. Y-D won in 2007 as a powerhouse delivering a finishing touch. Harwich in 2008 as an underdog catching fire.

And now Bourne in 2009. As a talented team getting hot? As a hard-working group living up to the promise? As a team, an organization and a town that really wanted this?

All of that, yes, and maybe this: A team that existed not as a blueprint or an expectation, not as a winter picture coming into focus, but only as it was, a team on a baseball field in a perfect rainy summer.

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