RIGHT FIELD FOG

I wrote about Cotuit’s speed yesterday, and so did the Cape Cod Times today.

Then the Kettleers went and did it all.

They were still running loose on the base paths, stealing six bases against Harwich last night, led by three from Rico Noel (Coastal Carolina). But that’s not the only thing they were doing. Cory Vaughn (San Diego State) hit a grand slam and Brandon Cumpton (Georgia Tech) tossed eight shutout innings as the Kettleers posted a 7-0 victory over the Mariners, the most lopsided win of the season for any Cape League team.

It was a season-high in runs and it tied a season-high in hits for the Kettleers, who now haven’t lost since opening night. But as impressive as they’ve been, this one probably takes the cake.

Vaughn, the son of former Major League and Cape Leaguer Greg Vaughn, had been struggling mightily, with just one hit in his first 13 at-bats. But he broke out in a big way on Wednesday, going 3-for-4 with two singles and the grand slam. Vaughn was the top prospect in the Northwoods League last year. If he continues to bust out this year, he could emerge as one of the Cape’s top prospects and as a key middle-of-the-order bat for a team that’s going to have a lot of runners in scoring position.

Vaughn wasn’t the only piece to the offensive puzzle last night. In addition to his three steals, Noel went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and a home run of his own. Like Vaughn, Noel had also been struggling but he’s now hitting .278 with nine steals. Jeff Rowland (Georgia Tech) and Zach Cone (Georgia) also drove in runs for the Kettleers.

All the offense was more than enough for Cumpton. The Georgia Tech sophomore pitched for Cotuit last summer and did some good things, striking out 20 in 20.1 innings. He also had some problems with walks and his ERA was up over four. But last night, Cumpton shined. Making his first appearance of the summer, Cumpton allowed just three hits in eight innings. He only struck out three but Harwich couldn’t sustain anything against him. The Mariners stranded seven runners.

All in all, a really impressive night for the Kettleers. And as if they needed a boost, Clemson’s Chris Dwyer, a fourth-round pick as a draft-eligible freshman, has decided to come to the Cape.

Elsewhere

In the only other game of the night, Chatham improved to 4-1 with a 5-4 extra-innings victory over Wareham. The Gatemen led 4-1 much of the way before Chatham tied the game with three in the seventh. A two-run double by Dean Green (Oklahoma State) was the big blow.

The game stayed knotted at four until the 10th. Nick Schwaner (New Orleans) and Matt Duffy (Vermont) singled to start the inning. Brian Harris (Vanderbilt) pinch ran for Schwaner and moved to third on a bunt single by Joey Terdoslavich (Long Beach State). With the bases loaded and nobody out, Wareham reliever Keith Bilodeau (Maine) got the strikeout he needed, but the ball got away and Harris scampered home with the winning run.

Taylor Hill (Vanderbilt) picked up the win for Chatham with two scoreless innings of relief.

The game was the seventh one-run game of the season in the league. There’s been at least one every night.

What to Watch For Tonight

We’re back to the beginning of a few pitching rotations, with several early standouts set to make their second starts. Mitch Mormann (Des Moines Area CC) will go for Falmouth against Hyannis and Austin Hudson (Central Florida). Y-D’s Chris Sale (Florida Gulf Coast) will be pitching at home against Brewster, while Wareham’s Eric Pfisterer (Duke) will go against Harwich. Also of note, Cotuit’s Max Russell (Florida Southern) will make his first start.

As I mentioned the other day, I couldn’t get into quite as much detail as usual in the Daily Fog because of a lack of box scores in the morning. That ended up being the case Monday, Tuesday and today. I don’t know if they’re going to be up late like that all year, but if they are, I’ll try to do something like this most days to kind of catch up on things.

I think I eventually tracked most things down from Monday but I missed some stuff Tuesday. So let’s get to some notes.

• Parker Bangs (South Carolina) batted cleanup for Chatham last night and pitched a scoreless inning of relief. It’ll be interesting to see how many innings Bangs gets this year. You don’t often see a true two-way player in the league. Usually they’re spending the summer focusing on one thing. I believe Y-D’s Mike Belfiore is the only one who saw significant time on the mound and at the plate last year.
• Devin Harris (East Carolina) and Tony Plagman (Georgia Tech) are pretty big additions in Cotuit, and it looks like they’ll certainly be counted on. They hit three-four in the lineup last night against Chatham.
• Some strong relief performances around the league, headed by Brewster’s Steven Maxwell (TCU), who allowed one hit in four shutout innings. He struck out seven and didn’t walk anybody. Other standouts: Hyannis’ Kevin Moran (2 IP, 0 R, 4 K’s), Wareham’s Josh Slaats (2 IP, 0 R, 3 K’s), Bourne’s Logan Billbrough (2 IP, 0 R, 3 K’s), and Falmouth’s Chad Sheppard (1 IP, 0 R, 3 K’s).
• Also of note in the relief department, Y-D’s Tyler Burgoon (Michigan) picked up his league-leading third save. Burgoon hasn’t yet allowed a hit this summer in 4.1 innings of work. He has struck out eight and walked just one.
• Tennessee’s Cody Hawn, my pick for MVP, made his first appearance of the last year, pinch-hitting for Hyannis. He did not get a hit, which was par for the course for the Mets. They managed just two all night against four Orleans pitchers.
• He hasn’t had a hit yet so you might not have noticed, but Florida State’s Stephen Cardullo, the only Baseball America first-team All-American on the Cape, is now in the lineup for Harwich. Cardullo hit .376 with 10 home runs and 51 RBI for the Seminoles this spring, but went undrafted.
• Seriously, what’s with all the stealing? Cotuit’s thefts are well-known, but Bourne’s Pierre LePage did the same thing Chris Bisson did opening night and stole four bases last night against Falmouth. I don’t know this for sure, but I’m pretty sure nobody stole four bases in a game all of last year, and now it’s happened twice. LePage is also hitting .389 for Bourne.
• Falmouth’s Murray Watts (Arkansas State), a temporary player who was signed out of the invitational tryout, went 2-for-3 last night to up his average to a team-best .357. Watts is a 6’7, 250-pound redshirt freshman who hit .305 with 10 home runs this spring.
• Wareham’s Derek Dietrich (Georgia Tech) broke out of a mini slump with a 2-for-5 day. Dietrich had just one hit in the first three games.

Last year’s Cotuit Kettleers finished second in the league in home runs but only fifth in steals.

That’s a rare feat for a Mike Roberts-coached team. In Roberts’ previous seasons at the helm in Cotuit, the Kettleers led the league in stolen bases twice, finished second once and third the other time. When Roberts managed Wareham in 2000, the Gatemen tied the all-time league record for stolen bases with 134.

So last year was an anomaly. It was a down year for speed all across the board, with the individual league leader getting only 15. The Kettleers finished with 46, less than one a game.

These days, things are back to normal.

If this can be called normal.

Roberts’ Kettleers have gone crazy on the base paths so far this summer. In five games, they’ve stolen 23 bases. Yes, that’s halfway to last year’s total. In five games.

It may be the normal approach, but there’s nothing normal about the results.

Chris Bisson has been the ring-leader. The sophomore from Kentucky leads the league with 10 steals. He has swiped at least two in every game, and he stole four in the season opener. You know that saying that if a certain fast guy gets a single, it’s basically a triple? That’s not the slightest exaggeration for Bisson. Heading into last night’s game, Bisson had stolen eight bases despite having a .231 on-base percentage. He really hasn’t been on base very much. Every time he gets on, though, he’s stealing second and third.

I thought someone from Cotuit would win the stolen base title this year. There was a lot of speed, and when you couple that with Roberts’ approach, you’re going to see a lot of steals. But I thought the champ would be Rico Noel , who stole 46 bases for Coastal Carolina. Noel does have six steals, but right now it’s Bisson who’s stealing the show.

A sophomore who’s originally from Ontario, Bisson was a second-team all-SEC pick this season after hitting a team-best .362. But he only stole 13 bases, a sign that perhaps he didn’t have the green light very often.

This summer, it looks like he and the rest of the Kettleers have it all the time. In a 5-3 victory over Chatham last night, they stole seven bases. The victory moved them to 2-1-1. They’re playing fairly well, and if they can get some clutch hits to go with the steals, they’ll be a real tough team to beat.

Could they set a few records in the process? The league’s individual record for stolen bases is 48, set by Wareham’s Roy Marsh in 1993. No one’s been close to that since 2005, when current San Francisco Giant Manny Burriss of Orleans stole 37. Right now, Bisson is on pace for 88. You’d think the pace would have to slow down, but even if Bisson only averages one steal per game the rest of the way, he would still get 49.

The team mark could also be challenged. The Kettleers are on pace to steal more than 200 bases, which would demolish the current record. That pace, too, will probably slow down as teams make a concerted effort to limit the running game. They’ll have to, or they’ll find themselves in trouble.

Either way, you can bet the Kettleers will keep running.

Elsewhere

• Cotuit’s Chad Bell (Walters State CC) struck out four in five strong innings, and Craig Fritsch (Baylor), who played for Y-D last year, picked up his first save. The loss was the first of the season for the Anglers, which means there are no more undefeated teams.
• In Hyannis, Orleans’ Elliott Glynn (Connecticut) struck out five and allowed one hit in six scoreless innings as the Firebirds earned their first victory of the season, 2-0 over the Mets. Jaren Matthews (Rutgers) provided all the offense with a two-run home run, his first of the year. He’s now hitting .333.
• Michael Goodnight (Houston) carried a no-hitter into the fifth and ended up with a solid six-inning, three-hit line as Y-D beat Harwich 6-5. Tyler Burgoon (Michigan) notched his league-leading third save of the season to hold off a Mariners rally and Jordan Casas (Long Beach State) went 4-for-4, the league’s best offensive performance of the season.
• Making his first appearance in a Bourne uniform, Stefan Romero (Oregon State) tripled to knock in the go-ahead run then scored an insurance run in the seventh inning as the Braves rallied to beat Falmouth 4-2.
• Wareham and Brewster played to a 2-2 tie, the third tie in five days of action. Wareham led 1-0 and 2-1, but Brewster came back both times, netting the second tying run on a safety squeeze by Lyle Allen.

What to Watch For Tonight

Originally an off day, two rescheduled games will be played tonight as Cotuit visits Harwich and Wareham travels to Chatham. There’s no fog or rain in the forecast.

Falmouth has more junior-college players than any team in the league, and all of them are pitchers who figure to be key parts of the staff.

They certainly made an impact Monday night.

Tommy Collier (San Jacinto) and Patrick Cooper (Des Moines Area CC) combined for eight shutout innings to lead Falmouth to a 4-0 victory over Orleans in a battle of winless teams.

I said before the season that it would be interesting to see how the juco guys would do against much tougher competition. So far, so good for Falmouth’s trio. Mitch Mormann, also of Des Moines CC, tossed four perfect innings in the Commodores’ opener.

But until Monday, the Commodores hadn’t found the win column. They tied the game Mormann pitched, then lost on Saturday and Sunday.

Collier, Cooper and another reliever, Georgia Tech’s Mark Pope , finally turned things around.

Collier, a freshman who got drafted in the 29th round out of high school, had a fantastic season at San Jacinto, a juco baseball powerhouse. He finished with 13 wins, a 2.67 ERA and 128 strikeouts in 91 innings. Among pitchers who are currently on the Cape, that strikeout total ranks at the top.

Monday night, Collier picked up where he left off, allowing just two hits in six shutout innings. He struck out nine and didn’t walk anybody.

In relief, Cooper also shined. He got himself into some early trouble but responded nicely to preserve the shutout. Cooper had great numbers at Des Moines this year — 106 Ks in 72.1 IP — and was a 34th-round pick of the Diamondbacks.

The performance by Collier and Cooper set the stage, and Pope made sure to finish it off. The Georgia Tech freshman had a high ERA this spring but also struck out a batter an inning. He worked a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his first save.

Falmouth’s offense was led by Todd Cunningham (Jacksonville State), who hit a home run, and Scott Lawson (Florida), who went 3-for-5 and stole four bases. He’s the second player already to steal four bases in a game this season. Chris Bisson did it for Cotuit.

Elsewhere

• Falmouth’s win dropped Orleans to 0-4, which is a surprising start considering how solid the offense looks on paper right now. But the Firebirds have a team ERA close to five, by far the worst in the league.
• If I told you one of the two pitchers who went for Brewster Monday night had a dominant performance, you’d probably pick Kyle Blair (San Diego), right? Blair was good — three shutout innings — but the real star was Mark Gormley. Brown’s top starter this spring, Gormley came on in relief for Brewster in the fourth inning last night and turned in one of the top pitching performance of the night. He ended up going six scoreless innings and striking out six. The offense didn’t provide much support but he didn’t need it anyway. The Whitecaps scored a pair of runs on errors. Gormley has now made two appearances and has struck out 10 in nine innings.
• There was a great story playing out for Bourne last night, and I hope someone will tell it in more detail at some point. According to the Bourne broadcast crew, Braves pitcher Stephen Porlier (Oklahoma) was making perhaps the last start of his career before he enlists in the Marines. And what a start it was. Porlier, who decided to join the Marines in part because injuries were derailing his baseball career, allowed one run in six innings, struck out four and didn’t walk anybody. He didn’t get a decision as Bourne and Cotuit ended in a 2-2 tie, but he still went out in style. If this is indeed the end of the line for Porlier’s baseball career, best of luck to him.
• For Cotuit, newcomers Devin Harris (East Carolina) and Tony Plagman (Georgia Tech) each had RBI. Chris Bisson (Kentucky) stole two more bases to bring his league-leading total to eight.
• Yesterday, there was one 3-0 team. Today, there’s a different one. Chatham, who’s played one fewer game than most of the rest of the teams, moved to 3-0 by knocking off previously unbeaten Y-D 3-2. Former Y-D player Whit Merrifield (South Carolina), who’s now with Chatham, scored what proved to be the winning run when he scampered home from third when Nick Schwaner (New Orleans) got caught in a rundown between first and second. Kaleb Fleck (Pitt-Johnston) went five shutout innings for Chatham and Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) picked up his first save. Brewer led the league in saves last year while pitching for Hyannis.
• Wareham topped Hyannis 4-2 thanks to a late rally. Ryan Pineda (Cal State Northridge) scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on a throwing error, and Eric Pfisterer (Duke) made it a 4-2 game with an RBI single. Reliever Jack Armstrong (Vanderbilt) made his first appearance for Wareham and picked up the win in relief with 3.2 shutout innings.

What to Watch For Tonight
Looks like a good pitching match-up in Chatham as Cotuit’s Chad Bell (Walter State CC) goes against Chatham’s Jake Thompson (Long Beach State). Bell was a 14th-round pick in last week’s draft. He’ll be making his first Cape appearance.

A few Monday night notes . . .

Junior-college standout Tommy Collier made his first start for Falmouth tonight and it doesn’t look like the step up in competition hurt him. Collier tossed six shutout innings and struck out nine, continuing the trend early-season of dominant starting pitching.

Over in Cotuit, a highly-touted player showed up on the lineup card. Devin Harris, a draft-eligible sophomore from East Carolina who wasn’t on Cotuit’s original roster, was in the lineup tonight and delivered an RBI. Harris, an outfielder, was an eighth-round pick by Baltimore last week, so I believe he’s the highest-picked player who’s currently on the Cape.

Harris was a breakout prospect for ECU this year, hitting .344 with 14 home runs, to go with 13 steals. Here’s a snippet from Baseball America’s draft scouting report: “Sophomore-eligible outfielder Devin Harris has big tools and looks the part of a prototypical right fielder. He’s an average runner at 6-foot-3, 227 pounds, with a plus arm suited for right field. Harris has massive raw power as well and the athletic ability to make adjustments . . . Harris fits in the first five rounds for a team that believes in his bat, but could fall because of the signing leverage he has as a sophomore.”

His arrival in Cotuit means he might be looking for a little more leverage. He’s definitely a player to keep an eye on this summer.

More on all of this and the rest of Monday’s happenings tomorrow morning. Hopefully, we’ll have some box scores.

At this rate, we’re going to get a no-hitter tomorrow.

On the first night of the season, Hyannis’ Austin Hudson (Central Florida) and Y-D’s Chris Sale (Florida Gulf Coast) turned in dominant starts. Saturday, it was Wareham’s Eric Pfisterer (Duke), who struck out 10 in five no-hit innings.

On the third day of the season, Bourne’s Eric Cantrell topped them all.

The sophomore from George Washington tossed eight shutout innings, allowed two hits, struck out 12 and didn’t walk anybody in leading Bourne to a 5-1 victory over Wareham. Two singles in the second were all the Gatemen could muster against Cantrell, who at one point, struck out six in a row and retired 16 in a row.

Cantrell wasn’t on my radar for the top pitchers in the preseason. In fact, when I highlighted this game yesterday, I made special mention of the other half of this pitching match-up, Scott Rembisz.

Cantrell’s numbers at GW weren’t overwhelming. He had an ERA just a shade under five, and he struck out 60 while walking 26 in 72.2 innings. Cantrell actually had a slightly better freshman year, when his ERA was 4.02.

But for pitchers, college stats aren’t the best predictors of Cape League success. Clearly, Cantrell is a good one, and he’s getting the chance to really show it. The Bourne broadcast team last night noted that he was pounding the zone, something he probably couldn’t do quite as much at school.

Cantrell’s performance helped Bourne post its first victory of the year after two straight losses to open the season. Cody Freeman (Mississippi State) had an RBI single to stake Bourne to a lead and Carlos Alonso (Delaware) had a two-run double in the seventh to break it open.

Elsewhere
These might be a little lighter in detail than usual, because box scores haven’t been posted yet. I’m going off the Cape Cod Times and team web sites.

• Pitching was also the story in Brewster, where Chatham’s Shawn Tolleson (Baylor) picked up where he left off last summer. Tolleson pitched for Y-D last year and ranked fourth in the league in strikeouts. He’s in Chatham now, and after a shaky spring — he had one win — he must be happy to be back on the Cape. Tolleson tossed seven one-hit innings to lead the Anglers to a 3-0 victory. Pete Kennelly (Fordham), a 38th-round pick last week who’s working his way back after Tommy John Surgery, struck out four in two innings to pick up the save.
• The only two teams to start last season with three straight wins were Harwich and Cotuit, who ended up playing for the championship. This year, Y-D stands alone. The Red Sox improved to 3-0 last night with a 3-1 victory over Hyannis. Darrin Campbell (San Diego) allowed three hits in six innings to pick up the win. Blake Kelso (Houston) and Steven Chatwood (San Diego) drove in runs for the Red Sox.
• It was a rally that might have ended the game either way. With darkness creeping in, Cotuit got two runners on base in the 10th inning of their game against Falmouth. They might not have gotten to the 11th, but they didn’t have to. Cody Stanley (UNC Wilmington) doubled home Kevin Patterson (Auburn) with the winning run as Cotuit posted a 3-2 victory. Justin Grimm (Georgia) was the other star for the Kettleers, going six shutout innings and allowing just one hit. Chris Bisson (Kentucky) stole two bases to bring his league-leading total to six after just two games.
• In another extra-innings thriller, Trent Mummey (Auburn) hit a walk-off home run to give Harwich a 2-1 victory over Orleans. Mummey, a sophomore who hit 15 home runs in the spring, scored both the Mariners’ runs and also he had a double. He was one of the few offensive stars in a game dominated by the pitching staffs. Brian Dupra (Notre Dame) picked up the win in relief for Harwich, whose pitchers struck out 13. Harwich moved to 2-0.

What to Watch For Tonight
A familiar name gets the start for Bourne as Ricky Bowen (Mississippi State) makes his return in Cotuit. Bowen had a 3.53 ERA as a regular starter for the Braves last year and was a 43rd-round pick last year. He was not on initial rosters. In Harwich, San Diego’s Kyle Blair will start for Brewster.

Notes written while wishing I could revise my Outstanding Pitcher watch list to include Eric Pfisterer . . .

So we’re off and running. What do we know so far? Not much.

It’s always funny this time of year. I get all geared up for the season, counting down the days, doing everything I can to be prepared, to know what to expect and then all of a sudden they’re playing baseball, and half the players are guys I’ve never heard of. But I guess that’s the fun part. The beauty of a Cape League season is that when it starts, you never know which team will shine or which players will turn into stars. It’s fitting that the season starts with a giant jolt of uncertainty.

I’m actually working on a list of new and temporary players (basically, guys who weren’t on preseason rosters) with some brief bios, so that we can have an idea of who we’re watching, even if they don’t stick around for long. That should be going up in the next day or two.

For now, let’s talk about a few names we’ve heard of, but maybe didn’t expect to hear.

As I mentioned in today’s Daily Fog, Brewster had Jim Klocke in its lineup last night. The Southeast Missouri State junior catcher played for the Whitecaps, and though he struggle with them, he’s had a fantastic college career. Much of this year’s draft, though, went by without his name popping up. He went in the 46th round.

Listening to the Bourne game tonight, I heard a familiar name who’s in the same boat. East Carolina junior Kyle Roller hit .270 for Bourne last year and was one of the league’s leaders in doubles last year. Roller hit .336 with 16 home runs this spring but didn’t get drafted until the 47th round. He was in the Bourne lineup tonight for the first time this season. For a Bourne team that’s been hit hard by Team USA, Roller could provide a big boost.

Over on Codball, Dave relayed some info he heard on WEEI. Boston Red Sox ninth-round pick Kendal Volz, a big arm who pitched for Wareham in ’07 and USA in ’08, will be playing on the Cape this summer, according to Jason McLeod, the Red Sox Director of Amateur Scouting. I’m assuming the Red Sox will keep an eye on him then decide what to offer based on his performance. If that is indeed the case, it’ll be interesting to see where he goes. Wareham’s roster is looking pretty full, so a return to the Gatemen might not be possible. We’ll see.

Finally, the Georgia Tech site Beesball is reporting that Tony Plagman will play for Cotuit. A junior, Plagman hit .364 this spring with 16 home runs and a team-best 73 RBI. Like Klocke and Roller, he didn’t get picked until the late rounds, so it sounds like he’ll be trying to raise his stock with the Kettleers. Last year, Plagman played briefly for Orleans.

In other news, Cotuit can run. You never want to get carried away defining teams after a few games, but I think this one is going to be a safe bet. The Kettleers stole seven bases in their opener against Wareham and a few more tonight against Falmouth. Chris Bisson (Kentucky) now has six steals in two games, which is pretty close to half as many as league-leader Tim Wheeler had all of last year. I thought this year might be a return to normal in the stolen base department — there were no true speedsters last year — and it looks like Bisson and fellow Kettleer Rico Noel will lead the charge.

How about those Whitecaps? Mark Canha was the only player in the league to hit a home run on opening night, and he hit another one Saturday. Teammates Bobby Coyle and Tim Freguson also went yard, giving Brewster four of the eight home runs that were hit in the season’s first two days.

Making an appearance for Orleans last night was one Jared Bard. A junior at Richmond, Bard is the brother of former North Carolina and Cape League star Daniel Bard. Daniel was called up to the Boston Red Sox in early May.

I made mention of this on Twitter and Dave also noted it on Codball: Rice star Anthony Rendon will not play this summer. The only freshman among the Golden Spikes Semifinalists, Rendon was signed up to play for Bourne or Team USA, but he suffered an injury in Rice’s Super Regional loss to LSU.

Third-round pick Robbie Shields was on the Cape for some preseason action, but he has since moved off the active section of Cotuit’s roster. If he’s signing, best of luck to Shields, who’s a real Cape League success story. He wasn’t fully on the radar until last year, when he was an early-season star with Cotuit before an injury ended his summer. It’s a shame he didn’t get to play all summer, but he played enough to make people take notice.

I’ve written about Wareham’s stability, but out in Orleans, the Firebirds are in pretty good shape, too. Guys like Devin Lohman, Michael Olt, Kevin Muno, Danny Muno, Michael Lang and Jaren Matthews — all of whom looked like key players in the preseason — have been in the lineup since day one. The Firebirds are still waiting for CWS participants Gary Brown, Matt Newman, Matt Packer and Riccio Torrez. Newman has also been invited to Team USA.

The start of the Cape League season is kind of the first official date on the next year’s draft calendar. Over the next two months, a lot of preliminary perceptions will be established. For now, there’s a little bit of talk out there about the 2010 draft. ESPN’s Keith Law has an article up (for Insiders only) detailing some early thoughts, and he mentions quite a few ’09 Cape Leaguers, most of whom haven’t yet arrived because of the CWS or Team USA. The guys that Law mentions who have arrived: Wareham’s Derek Dietrich, Y-D’s Josh Rutledge, Cotuit’s Justin Grimm and Falmouth’s Nick Tepesch. MLB’s Jonathan Mayo has also thrown out a few names for 2010: Christian Colon, Matt Harvey, Drew Pomeranz, Anthony Ranaudo and Victor Sanchez. Colon, Harvey and Ranaudo are on Cape rosters but are currently in Omaha. Pomeranz is on Team USA’s trial roster, while Sanchez is out with an injury. He played in Chatham last summer.

If you’re not on Twitter or at least checking CCBL Twitter pages, you should be. Several teams are on there, with broadcast teams doing most of the updates. That means lots of in-game updates, which is really nice to see. In the past, if you weren’t watching or listening to the online broadcast, it was tough to know what was going on. The Cape Cod Times is also on Twitter, as is Bourne assistant Jordan Wyckoff, who apparently is posting updates from the dugout. If you want to find all these, click here for my Twitter page. I’m following all of them.

I haven’t forgotten about the Chatham and Orleans not-so-early looks. They will be up this week. I feel blind when I look at those rosters, so I’ll get them done.

They might have to work on the finish a little, but the start was about as good as any we’ve seen in the young season.

Eric Pfisterer (Duke) tossed five no-hit innings with 10 strikeouts, Wareham’s veteran lineup scored four runs in the first and the bullpen held off a late charge by Cotuit to seal a 5-3 victory in the season opener for both teams.

Though the game turned into a bit of a nail-biter, the first few innings were all Wareham, and the Gatemen were doing exactly what they hoped to do this season. It appears that they’re the only team in the league currently fielding a lineup without any temporary players, so their lineup looks a lot like it’ll look in a few weeks. That’s particularly true of the middle of the order. Assuming everyone hits pretty well, it’s entirely possible that the top five of Ryan LaMarre (Michigan), Derek Dietrich (Georgia Tech), Ryan Pineda (Cal State Northridge), Alex Dickerson (Indiana) and George Springer (Connecticut) won’t change much all season.

After last night, that’s a reason to think big. Those five combined to go 8-for-19 with two RBI and all five of the runs. A double by Dietrich sparked the four-run first inning rally. Pineda, Dickerson and Springer also had hits, and the Gatemen proceeded to capitalize on a passed ball and a key error to chase home a few more runs. Springer added an RBI single in the eighth.

Pfisterer did the rest, and for five innings, he was a bigger story than the offense. Though he allowed base runners in each of the first two innings, he had unhittable stuff. He ended up getting 10 of the 15 outs he recorded via the strikeout, and he now leads the league in strikeouts.

This early in the season, it’s not surprising that he wasn’t sent back out to chase the no-hitter: you want to be careful with the arm. Especially when it’s one that’s this good. Pfisterer, a 15th-round pick out of high school last year, had an ERA of 5.00 at Duke this year, but he also struck out 45 in 45 innings. That kind of stuff plays well on the Cape, where the ERA is bound to go down. I wasn’t sure how much Pfisterer would factor into Wareham’s pitching plans — he’s also a hitter — but clearly, he’ll play a big role.

He’s certainly off to the right kind of start.

For a game story with a focus on John Wylde, read Ed Collins’ article on South Coast Today.

Elsewhere

• Two notes on Cotuit from that game. Mike Nesseth (Nebraska), a 15th-round pick this year, didn’t pitch all that badly. Three of the four runs he allowed were unearned. On the offensive side, the Kettleers ran wild. They’re always one of the more aggressive teams in the league, and this year, it looked in the preseason like they would have the perfect mix of players to play that way. Cotuit ended up stealing seven bases last night, with Chris Bisson (Kentucky) swiping four, Rico Noel (Coastal Carolina) getting two and Zach Cone (Georgia) stealing another. If they can keep that up, the Kettleers are going to put a lot of pressure on people
• They had lights, so they could have played all night, but this time, the Brewster Whitecaps took care of business in the ninth. A night after their game went to 10 innings but ended in a tie because of darkness, the Whitecaps played under the lights in Orleans and rallied from an 8-6 deficit with four in the ninth to win 10-8 in probably the most dramatic game of the young season. The Whitecaps sent nine to the plate in the ninth and got all the runs home with two outs. Lyle Allen (Georgia) plated the first run with a single, Davy Wright (TCU) worked a bases-loaded walk for the second run and Jim Klocke (Southeast Missouri) hit a single that ended up bringing in two, with the help of a throwing error. Bobby Coyle (Arizona) and Tim Ferguson (Ole Miss) each had three hits and a home run, and Mark Canha (California) added his second home run in as many games. Michael Olt (Connecticut) had a home run for Orleans.
• Klocke is an interesting name to see in the lineup. He’s a junior catcher who wasn’t on Brewster’s initial roster, but he played on the Cape last year and hit .189. He had a huge spring, hitting .394 with nine home runs, but when the draft came around, he lasted until the 46th round. It would appear he’s trying to show his stuff this summer.
• Y-D is the only team in the league with two victories, as the Red Sox posted their second one-run victory last night, this one a 4-3 decision over Bourne. The Red Sox trailed 2-1 until the eighth, when Mickey Wiswall (Boston College) knocked in a run with a single and Brian Hernandez (UC Irvine) drew a bases-loaded walk for the go-ahead run. Tyler Burgoon (Michigan) struck out five in two hitless innings of relief.
• The fog rolled into Chatham again last night, but this time, the Anglers at least got to make their game official. After playing one inning last night before a fog postponement, the Anglers posted a 4-1 victory over Hyannis in a game that was called in the seventh. Mike Dennhardt (Boston College), Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) and Taylor Hill (Vanderbilt) combined for seven strong innings, allowing just an unearned run. Tom Belza (Oklahoma State) led the offense with a 3-for-3 night that included a fog-aided inside-the-park home run. The game was the second fog-shortened contest in as many games for Hyannis.
• Playing their first game two days after they were supposed to, the Harwich Mariners must have been chomping at the bit. They scored 10 runs on 10 hits in beating Falmouth 10-5. Chris Wade (Kentucky) went 3-for-5, Trent Mummey (Auburn) had two hits and David Herbek (James Madison) and Ryan Lockwood (South Florida) each drove in two runs. Matthew Price (Virginia Tech) worked four strong innings of relief to pick up the win.

What to Watch For Tonight

• Scott Rembisz, who put up some good numbers at Florida International (90 K’s in 94 innings), makes his first start of the year for Wareham as the Gatemen visit Bourne. The Braves will counter with George Washington’s Eric Cantrell.

Nobody wants weather postponements wreaking havoc on the league schedule, but I’ve got to say: fog, our old friend, it was nice to see you again.

Fog wasn’t around much last year. Its regular appearances in Chatham didn’t even happen. But last night, the Chatham game got postponed when the fog rolled in, and the Bourne-Hyannis game got called after seven innings. Disappointing, for sure, but getting a quintessential Cape League night — with all the trappings — isn’t the worst thing in the world on opening night.

And fog wasn’t the only old friend hanging around.

Back for his third year in the Cape League, it looks Hyannis’ Austin Hudson (Central Florida) is happy to be in a Mets uniform, happy to be seeing a little fog, and maybe most of all, happy to be seeing those wooden bats.

Hudson has had kind of a strange college career. He has never put up great numbers at Central Florida. His career ERA there is 7.15. This year, it was over 10. But something about the Cape turns Hudson completely around. In two summers, his career Cape ERA is 2.70. Last year, he led the league in ERA.

On Friday, Hudson got the opening night start for Hyannis.

And he did what he always does on the Cape. Hudson allowed one run in six strong innings and picked up the win as Hyannis beat Bourne 4-2 in seven innings.

His ERA after last night? It’s 1.50, exactly the same as his league-leading mark last year.

Welcome back, Mr. Hudson.

You too, fog.

Elsewhere

• The Hyannis offense was powered by Kenny Swab (Young Harris) and Ryan Cuneo (Delaware), who each had two hits and an RBI. Swab, whom manager Chad Gassman is really high on looked poised for a big summer from the start after hitting .342 this spring. Cuneo wasn’t on Hyannis’ original roster, but hit .285 this spring with 17 home runs. Also for Hyannis, Will Weidig (Brown) picked up the save when the seventh inning turned into the last inning. Jamal Austin (UAB) had two hits and stole two bases.
• Bourne’s Turner Phelps (James Madison) allowed three earned runs in four innings.
• Y-D got a dominant performance by Chris Sale (Florida Gulf Coast) and used two squeeze plays to score runs in a 4-3 victory over Orleans. Steven Chatwood (San Diego) and Blake Kelso (Houston) delivered the key bunts, and Mickey Wiswall (Boston College) went 3-for-4 with an RBI, the league’s best opening night line. Sale also shined, striking out eight and walking none in six shutout innings. Orleans got two hits each from Ross Heffley (Western Carolina), Michael Olt (Connecticut) and Jaren Matthews (Rutgers), though a ninth-inning rally fell one-run short. Jimmy Reyes (Elon) allowed two runs and struck out four in five innings.
• Falmouth and Brewster played 10 innings before the game was called due to darkness, ending in a 2-2 tie. Mitch Mormann (Des Moines Area CC) worked four perfect innings for Falmouth and Casey Schmidt (San Diego) was almost as strong for Brewster, allowing three hits in five scoreless innings. Schmidt hasn’t pitched a college game since 2007 — injuries and a transfer year have kept him out — but he was a 15th-round pick this year. Brewster’s offense was led by Mark Canha (California), who hit the only home run of the night. Conner Mach (Missouri) and Murray Watts (Arkansas State) drove in runs for Falmouth.

What to Watch For Tonight

• Well, the weather looks alright now, with just scattered showers in the forecast for tonight, so Chatham, Cotuit, Harwich and Wareham might actually get to play. Nick Tepesch (Missouri), an interesting pitcher to watch, is scheduled to get the start for Falmouth at Harwich.

Cotuit and Harwich were supposed to be the first teams to play, but now it looks like they might be the last. Their game at Whitehouse Field that was pushed to tonight from last night has been postponed again, according to the Mariners’ twitter page.

I haven’t seen news of any other postponements yet, so hopefully the season will actually start tonight.

Falmouth at Brewster and Orleans at Y-D are both scheduled to go off at 5 p.m.

Wareham is scheduled to play in Chatham at 7 p.m. Hyannis visits Bourne at 7.

Play ball? Maybe?