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Regional Watching

The Cape League season is less than two weeks away but if you need to whet your appetite, you’re in luck. The NCAA tournament begins today with 32 regional games.

Some Cape notes down below, but first, courtesy of SEBaseball.com, here’s a Friday schedule, sorted by time and with TV info included. Most games are available online at ESPN3.com. Four will be televised on ESPNU: Troy vs. Alabama at 12 p.m., Wichita State vs. Kansas State at 3 p.m., East Tennessee State vs. Vanderbilt at 5 p.m., and Columbia vs. Cal State Fullerton at 11 p.m.

Friday:
Noon ET Troy vs Alabama (Tallahassee) ESPNU

1 ET Coastal Carolina vs Oklahoma (Blacksburg) ESPN3
1 ET Towson vs Florida Atlantic (Chapel Hill) ESPN3
1 ET Liberty vs Clemson (Columbia) ESPN3
1 ET Florida vs Austin Peay (Bloomington) ESPN3
1 ET Army vs Virginia (Charlottesville) ESPN3

2 ET William & Mary vs Ole Miss (Raleigh) ESPN3
2 ET Georgia Tech vs. Illinois (Nashville) ESPN3
2 ET Oklahoma State vs. Miami (Louisville) ESPN3

3 ET Wichita State vs Kansas State (Manhattan) ESPNU
3 ET UC Santa Barbara vs Texas A&M (Corvallis) ESPN3
3 ET Mercer vs South Alabama (Starkville) ESPN3
3 ET Jackson State vs LSU (Baton Rouge) ESPN3

5 ET San Francisco vs Rice (Eugene) ESPN3
5 ET Savannah State vs Florida State (Tallahassee) ESPN3
5 ET San Diego vs Cal Poly (Los Angeles) ESPN3

5:30 ET Connecticut vs Virginia Tech (Blacksburg) ESPN3

6 ET Canisius vs North Carolina (Chapel Hill) ESPN3
6 ET Bowling Green vs Louisville (Louisville) ESPN3
6 ET Elon vs UNC Wilmington (Charlottesville) ESPN3

7 ET Valparaiso vs Indiana (Bloomington) ESPN3
7 ET Binghamton vs NC State (Raleigh) ESPN3
7 ET East Tennessee State vs Vanderbilt (Nashville) ESPNU
7 ET Saint Louis vs South Carolina (Columbia) ESPN3
7 ET New Mexico vs Arizona State (Fullerton) ESPN3

8 ET UTSA vs Oregon State (Corvallis) ESPN3
8 ET Central Arkansas vs Mississippi State (Starkville) ESPN3
8 ET Bryant vs Arkansas (Manhattan) ESPN3
8 ET Sam Houston State vs Louisiana(Baton Rouge) ESPN3

9 ET South Dakota State vs Oregon (Eugene) ESPN3
9 ET San Diego State vs UCLA (Los Angeles) ESPN3

11 ET Columbia vs Cal State Fullerton (Fullerton) ESPNU

 

CAPE LEAGUE FLAVORED REGIONAL NOTES

  • Cape League mainstay North Carolina is your No. 1 national seed. The Heels have seven players on Cape League rosters, led by freshmen Skye Bolt (Harwich) and Landon Lassiter (Chatham). Bolt has also been invited to Team USA. Also in the Chapel Hill Regional is Florida Atlantic, who’s led by future Bourne Brave Austin Gomber, the ace of the Owls’ staff.

  • Wareham fans will have their pick of Gatemen champions to root for this weekend. Tyler Horan leads Virginia Tech as it hosts a regional, Daniel Palka and Mott Hyde take Georgia Tech to the Nashville regional and Kyle Schwarber will be leading Indiana as it hosts a regional for the first time.

  • If East Tennessee State can pull off a monumental upset of Vanderbilt, Clint Freeman will probably be at the center of it. The future Bourne Brave hit .336 with 10 homers this year.

  • Casey Gillaspie, future Falmouth Commodore and brother of former Commodore Conor Gillaspie, will be in action on ESPNU at 3 as Wichita State takes on Kansas State. Gillaspie had a big sophomore season.

  • Former Chatham Angler Kris Bryant has had an incredible season for San Diego and is likely to be drafted in the top three picks next week. He and the Toreros take on Cal Poly at 5 p.m. in the L.A. regional.

  • San Francisco is making just its third regional appearance. The Dons have led offensively by future Cotuit Kettleer Bradley Zimmer, who’s brother Kyle is a former Kettleer and a first-round draft pick.

  • Bryant University, in its first year of D-I postseason eligibility, is in Kansas and will take on Arkansas. Craig Schlitter (Falmouth ’12) has had a big hand in the team’s success this year.

  • Alex Bregman has been invited to Team USA, so he may not make it to Harwich this summer. But the LSU freshman is worth watching anyway. He and the Tigers play Jackson State at 3 p.m.

  • Louisville is sending a huge contingent to the Cape this summer and has quite a few former Cape Leaguers as well. The Cards are hosting a regional and they take on Bowling Green at 6 p.m.

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    Gatemen Still Scorching

    Momentum isn’t supposed to last very long in baseball. It’s as good as the next day’s starting pitcher, they say.

    For several members of the 2012 Wareham Gatemen, momentum seems to have held strong for a good six months.

    Kyle Schwarber, Daniel Palka, Mott Hyde and Tyler Horan were four of the biggest reasons why the Gatemen put together their magical run to the 2012 Cape Cod Baseball League Championship. They combined for six playoff home runs and delivered big hit after big hit in leading Wareham past Y-D in the championship series.

    Six months later, that quartet continues to rake on fields far and wide.

    Schwarber, a sophomore at Indiana, is batting .378 with two homers, three doubles and nine RBI. Horan, a junior at Virginia Tech, is hitting at a .365 clip with two homers, three doubles and 14 RBI. Hyde, a Georgia Tech junior, is a little off the pace at .267 but he’s got five extra-base hits and eight RBI.

    And few in the country have been better than Palka. The Georgia Tech junior is mashing the ball to the tune of a .489 average, three home runs, five doubles and 20 RBI. He’s slugging .800.

    At some point, they might cool off, but the way last summer went, I wouldn’t count on it. The boys of Wareham’s summer are still shining in the spring.