Four Hundred

Andrew Calica went 1-for-3 Sunday, finishing with a .425 batting average.

Andrew Calica made his Cape Cod Baseball League debut on June 23 at Spillane Field. He batted ninth for Wareham and went 0-for-3 in a 4-0 loss.

It was not a sign of things to come.

From that beginning, Calica authored one of the best seasons at the plate in Cape League history. With a 1-for-3 night in Sunday’s regular season finale, Calica finished with a .425 batting average. Forty-eight hits in 113 at-bats. And a long list of achievements:

Calica’s average is the highest in the league since Terry Steinbach hit .431 for Cotuit in 1982 — with a metal bat.

Calica’s mark is the highest since the league switched to wood bats in 1985.

His average cracks the top five in Cape League history, ranking fifth.

Calica becomes the first player to finish with an average above .400 in 25 years, since Mark Smith hit .408 for Wareham in 1990.

In this day and age, batting average is not one of the cool stats. There are better ways to measure value. And as was the case when Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown took a back-seat to an MVP debate, value-driven stats tend to bury other numbers.

They shouldn’t. Hitting .400 is a big deal.

A Cape League season may be a small sample – and Calica arrived two weeks late – but if hitting .400 was easy, then it wouldn’t have taken 25 years to do it. It was reasonable to wonder if it would ever happen again.

Calica was the guy to break through. The 6’1, 190-pound outfielder hit .329 in his redshirt sophomore season at UC Santa Barbara this spring. He had hit .310 in his first full season with the Gauchos.

Following his 0-for-3 debut for Wareham, he went 3-for-4 the next night. That was a sign of a things to come.

Calica would go on to 16 multi-hit games out of 31 games played. Most of the hits were singles – 45 out of 48, to be exact, with two doubles and a homer mixed in – but Calica just kept knocking base hits.

He kept his average above .400 into mid-July, though he was off the qualifying pace for the batting title.

On July 15, Calica went 0-for-4 against Chatham. He went 0-for-4 again the next night, then 0-for-3. His average was at .371. He was human.

In his next five games, he went 15-for-23. That stretch included a 5-for-5 night against Hyannis on July 23. It was the moment when .400 became a true possibility.

Calica would stay well above the mark the rest of the way. When he finally reached the qualifying number for plate appearances – naturally, with a 3-for-4 night – his average was at .439 with four games to go.

He played in all four of those games and had a hit in all four. Sunday, with .400 all but secure – he would have had to go 0-for-8 to fall under .400 – Calica delivered a third-inning single for hit number 48, the finishing touch on a remarkable season.

The Cape League’s 400 club finally has a new member.

End of the Road

After pushing the teams above them to the limit, Falmouth and Harwich both bowed out of the playoff race with one-run losses Sunday.

The Commodores would have been in with a win, but lost a 10-inning heartbreaker 6-5 to Bourne. Trailing 5-4 in the ninth, Falmouth kept its season alive on a sacrifice fly by Tristan Gray (Rice), but Bourne pushed a run across in the top of the 10th. J.B. Woodman (Ole Miss) doubled with one out in the bottom half but was stranded at second by Braves reliever Nick Jensen-Clagg (Kent State).

Heading into Sunday, Harwich needed a little more help than Falmouth and got it when both Chatham and Y-D lost their finales. But Brewster scored early and often and held off a late charge for an 8-7 win over the Mariners.

Nick Senzel (Tennessee) homered, while J.C. Escarra (Florida International) and Ryan Peurifoy (Georgia Tech) delivered two hits each for the Whitecaps. The Mariners started down the comeback trail with three in the sixth but would get no closer than one run. Thomas Hackimer (St. John’s) struck out the side in the ninth to finish it off.

Thanks to those losses, playoff seedings are as follows:

East
1. Orleans
2. Brewster
3. Y-D
4. Chatham

West
1. Hyannis
2. Bourne
3. Wareham
4. Cotuit

Wareham 7, Cotuit 4

While three teams lost their finales but still clinched playoff spots, Wareham got in with a win. The Gatemen used a five-run sixth inning to break open a close game and held on from there. Kramer Robertson (LSU) and Connor Beck (TCU) had two hits and two RBI each to lead the charge. Ian Hamilton (Washington State) struck out nine in 5.1 innings for the win. Evan Hill (Michigan) went the final 3.2 innings for the save.

Orleans 8, Chatham 4

Orleans won its fourth straight to close the season and matched the 31-12-1 record of the 2007 Y-D Red Sox, the best mark of the last 15 years. Bobby Dalbec (Arizona) finished off his home run crown with his 12th (in 27 games). Tres Barrera (Texas) also homered, Willie Abreu (Miami) had three hits, and Kyle Lewis (Mercer), Alex Call (Ball State) and Bryan Reynolds (Vanderbilt) chipped in two hits each. Parker Bean (Liberty) was credited with the win in relief. Chatham finished the season on a four-game losing streak, including two in a row to Orleans. The two will meet again in the opening round of the playoffs.

Hyannis 5, Y-D 4

Hyannis completed its wire-to-wire run atop the West with a 5-4 win over Y-D. Bobby Melley (Connecticut), who had played only three games this summer and none since June 14, returned with a bang, going 4-for-5 with a double and two RBI. Jacob Noll (Florida Gulf Coast) homered as part of a three-hit night. Blake Quinn (Cal State Fullerton) went six strong innings for the win.

What to Watch

Teams will jump right into the playoffs tonight. The schedule:

Y-D at Brewster, 4 p.m.
Cotuit at Hyannis, 6 p.m.
Wareham at Bourne, 6 p.m.
Chatham at Orleans, 7 p.m.

July 29, 2015July 29, 2015

Chasing a Title

Andrew Calica is hitting .426 and should soon qualify for the batting title.

Yesterday’s games were the start of a mad dash to the finish in the Cape League, where there won’t be a day off until it’s all over. There’s much to be decided in the standings — and one very interesting race to be decided on league leaderboards.

Wareham’s Andrew Calica (UC Santa Barbara) went 2-for-6 in the Gatemen’s 12-inning, 4-4 tie with Harwich last night. The lefty-swinging outfielder is now batting .426. He has 17 hits in his last seven games. Assuming he stays hot, he looks like the favorite to win the batting title . . . as long as he gets enough plate appearances.

Calica arrived in Wareham two weeks into the season, and though he has been red-hot since the day he stepped foot on the Cape, he has yet to make an official appearance in the race for the league’s batting title. Players need a minimum of 2.7 plate appearances per team game, and Calica has yet to reach that threshold.

But it’s a number he’s steadily catching up to, and if he stays hot over the final week of the season, he could win the batting title and become the first Cape Leaguer to hit .400 since Mark Smith did it for Wareham in 1990.

Calculating plate appearances requires a bit of math (ABs + BBs + HBP + Sacrifices), so feel free to check me on this, but I’ve got Calica for 105 plate appearances as of last night (94 ABs + 6 BBs + 3 HBP + 2 Sacrifices). To qualify right now, through 39 team games, he would need 105.3 plate appearances, so he’s almost there.

If he gets three plate appearances tomorrow – a pretty good bet – he’ll be right on the number of 108 through 40 games. The end-of-season number needs to be 118.8. So Calica needs 14 plate appearances over his final five games to get above that mark.

As for the quest for .400, Calica has as good a chance as anybody I can remember. He’s averaging about 3.6 at-bats per game, which would give him 18 more at-bats this season. If he gets five hits in that span, he’ll finish at .402.

Calica’s performance Tuesday helped Wareham grab a point in the standings with the tie against Harwich. Mark Karaviotis (Oregon) and Connor Beck (TCU) also chipped in two hits, while Andrew Knizner (NC State) homered. The Gatemen trailed 4-3 in the top of the ninth but forced extras on Knizner’s home run.

Harwich got two hits and two RBI from Connor Justus (Georgia Tech). Sheldon Neuse (Oklahoma) pitched 2.1 scoreless innings of relief to keep the game tied in extras. The Mariners are 17-20-2 and the point they picked up with the tie moves them just two points out of a playoff spot.

Wareham is now 15-22-2 and is tied with Cotuit for third place in the West.

The Gatemen have yet to clinch a playoff spot, so they’ll be pushing hard over the season’s final week. Calica will be leading the charge.

Bourne 5, Y-D 3 (10 innings)

The Harwich-Wareham game was one of three extra-innings affairs on a wild night around the league. With a 10-inning victory over Y-D, Bourne clinched a playoff spot. The Braves are 19-18-2 and have won four in a row. Y-D tied last night’s game with two runs in the seventh inning, but as darkness closed in at Red Wilson Field, Bourne pushed two runs across in the 10th on consecutive bases-loaded walks to Reid Humphreys (Mississippi State) and Corey Julks (Houston). Austin Conway (Indiana State) then worked a perfect bottom of the 10th for his league-leading ninth save. Conway still hasn’t allowed an earned run all summer. Jacob Robson (Mississippi State) chipped in a home run for Bourne.

Orleans 6, Brewster 6 (12 innings)

Orleans was on the brink of clinching the outright East Division title, but second-place Brewster touched up the bullpen for four runs in the eighth and one in the ninth to force extras. The teams went on to play three more innings before the game was called in a tie. Mitchell Jordan (Stetson) allowed one unearned run in five innings, putting his season ERA at 0.21. The Firebirds staked themselves to a lead, as well, scoring all six of their runs in the first four innings. Bobby Dalbec (Arizona) hit his 10th home run and drove in three, while Daniel Pinero (Virginia) had two RBI. Brewster came to life in the eighth with a Nick Senzel (Tennessee) RBI single, a two-run triple by J.C. Escarra (Florida International) and an RBI groundout by Cassidy Brown (Loyola Marymount). Trailing by one in the ninth, Escarra plated the tying run with a base hit. Eder Erives (Arizona State) came out of the bullpen after that and slammed the door, pitching the final 3.1 innings, but the damage had been done. Had Orleans beaten Brewster, the teams would have been 12 points apart in the standings with five games left. As it is, they’re 10 points apart, which means there’s still a slim chance they could finish tied if Brewster wins its last five and Orleans loses all five.

Cotuit 6, Falmouth 1

The Kettleers won their third straight and gained a little more distance on the fading Commodores in the West Division race. Cotuit broke a 1-1 tie with four runs in the sixth inning. Spencer Gaa (Bradley) and Jeren Kendall (Vanderbilt) knocked in runs ahead of a two-run single by Will Haynie (Alabama), who finished with three RBI on the day. The rally made a winner out of Nick Lewis (Baylor), who tossed four scoreless innings of relief, striking out three and giving up no hits. Matthew Milburn (Wofford) had given Cotuit a solid start, allowing one run in five innings. Gaa, Kendall, Haynie and Branden Berry (Cal State Northridge) each had two hits to power the Cotuit offense. The Kettleers are now 16-23 and tied with Wareham for third place in the West. Falmouth, which has lost six in a row, is five points back Cotuit and Wareham.

Hyannis 4, Chatham 3

Even with Bourne surging, Hyannis still has a three-point edge at the top of the West thanks to a narrow victory over Chatham at Veterans Field last night. Jacob Noll (Florida Gulf Coast) went 3-for-3 with an RBI to lead the way, while Austin Hays (Jacksonville) had two hits and two RBI. Corey Bird (Marshall) scored two runs. Blake Quinn (Cal State Fullerton) allowed one earned run in five innings for the win. Aaron Civale (Northeastern) struck out five of the nine batters he faced in the two-inning save.

What to Watch

Orleans and Brewster will meet for the second straight night. League strikeout leader Eric Lauer (Kent State) goes for the Firebirds against Tyson Miller (California Baptist), who has a 2.11 ERA for the Whitecaps.

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015

Raising the Cup

JaVon Shelby had a big day as Hyannis rolled past Cotuit.

I saw news last night that Hyannis had won the Barnstable Patriot Cup and didn’t believe it. The season isn’t even halfway over, I told myself. There’s no way they could have done it that quickly.

Well, the season is halfway over, exactly halfway in fact. And Hyannis won the rivalry trophy as quickly as possible.

The Harbor Hawks beat the Kettleers 11-5 at McKeon Park for their fourth win in four games against the Kettleers. That clinches the six-game season series between the teams and brings the cup to Hyannis.

Hyannis has had a lot of people’s number on its wire-to-wire run in the West, but Cotuit has had a particularly tough time. The Harbor Hawks won the first meeting 5-0 and the second 7-3. Cotuit made a push in the third match-up, losing 2-1.

Sunday, Hyannis grabbed the cup with a flourish, racing to an 11-0 lead in the first six innings of the game. Errol Robinson (Ole Miss) went 3-for-4 with three RBI while JaVon Shelby (Kentucky) went 3-for-5 with an RBI. The league’s leading hitter Jacob Noll (Florida Gulf Coast) smacked his ninth double as part of a 2-for-4 night. Ben DeLuzio (Florida State), Blake Tiberi (Louisville) and Corey Bird (Marshall) all chipped in two hits.

Blake Quinn (Cal State Fullerton), making his fourth start, was at his best after getting staked to the early lead. He tossed five shutout innings, striking out two and allowing three hits. Cotuit scored five runs off the Hyannis bullpen, but the hole was too deep.

The cup belongs to Hyannis.

Orleans 5, Wareham 0

Mitchell Jordan (Stetson) dominated for the fifth time and sent Orleans on its way to a shutout of Wareham. Jordan tossed six shutout innings and moved to 4-0, while keeping his season ERA at 0.00. The one unearned run he allowed in his last start remains the only run he’s given up. Jordan also struck out six on Sunday and didn’t walk a batter. He leads the league in strikeouts with 31 in 27 innings. He has given up just nine hits all summer. The Orleans offense was also up to its usual tricks Sunday, with Kyle Lewis (Mercer) hitting his leagie-best fifth home run. Alex Call (Ball State) also homered. The Firebirds have won two in a row and have an eight-point cushion on second-place Chatham.

Y-D 10, Brewster 2

Y-D has won two straight and six of its last 10 to move into third place in the East. The Red Sox topped Brewster 10-2 on Sunday to move to 11-12. They were coming off a 7-0 shutout of Hyannis on the Fourth of July. In their last two games, the Red Sox have pounded 27 hits. Gio Brusa (Washington), the late pick-up who starred for Brewster last summer, has now delivered a hit in five straight games. He homered Sunday, scored three runs and drove in two. Ryan Noda (Cincinnati) also homered and had four RBI. Connor Wong (Houston) went 3-for-3 and Stephen Wrenn (Georgia) went 3-for-4. Leading hitter Donnie Walton (Oklahoma State), the one guy who’s been hot since day one, went 1-for-4, giving him eight hits in his last five games. Four different Red Sox took the hill for short stints, with Cory Malcolm (Arkansas-Little Rock) picking up the win.

Chatham 12, Harwich 4

The Anglers scored a season-high 12 runs in breezing past Harwich and moving one game over .500. Luke Persico (UCLA) led the charge with a third-inning grand slam. He added an RBI single in the seventh to finish 2-for-5 with five RBI. Kyle Brooks (North Florida) and Nate Mondou (Wake Forest) chipped in two hits apiece, with Zack Short (Sacred Heart) knocking in a pair of runs. Short is now tied for third in the league in RBI with 12, despite batting just .191. Parker Dunshee (Wake Forest) was the beneficiary of the big day at the plate. He struck out nine and gave up three earned runs in six innings for the win.

Bourne 4, Falmouth 2

Both teams had 12 hits but Bourne made a few more of them count in a 4-2 victory over Falmouth. Vince Fernandez (UC Riverside) and Brian Serven (Arizona State) had two hits and an RBI each, while Ryan Boldt (Nebraska) also knocked in a run. Nick Solak (Louisville) scored two runs and Jacob Robson (Mississippi State) went 3-for-4. Ryan Keaffaber (Indiana State) allowed one run in five innings before a four-inning save by Cody Sedlock (Illinois). Sedlock gave up seven hits and one earned run, but also struck out eight in just four innings. Bourne moved to 10-10-2 and continued to gain separation from Falmouth and Cotuit, who have fallen off the pace in the West.

What to Watch

Three make-up games on the docket today. With Hyannis idle, Wareham will try to make up a little ground in the West as it visits Harwich.