Daily Fog: Flair for the Dramatic

The Harwich Mariners celebrate their walk-off win on the Fourth of July. They also delivered a late comeback to win Monday.

Wins have not been easy to come by for the Harwich Mariners this summer, but when victories have been within reach the last few days, the Mariners have gone out and grabbed them.

After a walk-off win over Brewster on July 4, the Mariners rallied for two runs in the eighth inning to beat Wareham Monday night.

The comeback wins have helped keep the Mariners within striking distance in the East. Had the comebacks stalled, Harwich could easily be sliding. Three losses in their last five would have turned into a five-game losing streak without the rallies.

Monday, they trailed the Gatemen 2-0 in the sixth but cut the deficit in half on a Sheldon Neuse (Oklahoma) RBI single. Two innings later – with the bullpen keeping it a 2-1 game – Harwich and Neuse were at it again. Base hits by Adam Pate (North Carolina) and Johnny Adams (Boston College) set the table for Neuse and he delivered with a double to score Pate. Adams came around in the same sequence, on an error by the centerfielder.

Armed with a lead, Luke Scherzer (Virginia Tech) tossed a scoreless ninth for his league-best sixth save.

Neuse finished 2-for-4 with the two RBI. Adams and Preston Palmeiro (NC State) also had two hits apiece.

Harwich is now 11-11-1, good for third place in the East.

Brewster 5, Falmouth 3

Brewster is also doing its best to keep pace in the East and its win Monday further tightens the race. Second-place Chatham and fifth-place Y-D are two points apart, with Harwich and Brewster in between. The Whitecaps again had their league-leading offense going, knocking 13 hits to beat the Commodores. Falmouth tied the game in the eighth before Brewster plated a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning. Nick Senzel (Tennessee) went 3-for-5, his second three-hit game in five days. J.C. Escarra (Florida International), Robbie Tenerowicz (California), Toby Handley (Stony Brook) and Nico Giarratano (San Francisco) all had two hits. Tyson Miller (California Baptist) didn’t factor in the decision, but went six strong innings, allowing just one run. Trent Paddon (Oregon) got the win and Thomas Hackimer (St. John’s) the save. For Falmouth, J.J. Matijevic (Arizona) went 3-for-3 with a home run.

Cotuit 4, Bourne 3

The Kettleers rallied from a 3-2 deficit with two runs in the top of the ninth to beat Bourne 4-3. Kort Peterson (UCLA) started the ninth-inning rally with a triple and Spencer Gaa (Bradley) had a pinch-hit, RBI single to tie the game. Matt Albanese (Bryant) followed with an RBI single that put Cotuit ahead. Justin Dunn (Boston College) worked around a one-out single to toss a scoreless ninth for the save. Albanese finished with two hits to pace the Cotuit attack. Branden Berry (Cal State Northridge) homered. For Bourne, Nick Solak (Louisville) went 4-for-5 and took over the league lead in hitting with a .350 average.

What to Watch

As if Orleans needed any help, Boston’s sixth-round pick last month, Travis Lakins (Ohio State), will make his first start for the Firebirds tonight when they visit Falmouth. Lakins, a draft-eligible sophomore, had a 3.75 ERA with 84 strikeouts this spring. Last summer, he tossed the first perfect game in Prospect League history.

June 15, 2015June 15, 2015

Fast starts after big finish

Trenton Brooks is hitting an even .500 in the early going.

Four sophomores were among the national top 50 in batting average this spring. One of them – Arkansas’ Andrew Benintendi – was draft-eligible and went as Boston’s first-round pick earlier this month. The other three have headed to New England for a different reason. Will Craig, Kyle Lewis and Trenton Brooks are all in the Cape Cod Baseball League this summer. And in one of 2015’s early storylines, those three are picking up exactly where they left off.

Through six games, Brooks leads the league with a .500 batting average. The Chatham outfielder has had a hit in every game but one (in which he was hit by a pitch in his first time up and departed). The lefty-swinging rising junior has done nothing but hit in two seasons at Nevada, with a .330 average as a freshman and a .365 mark this season.

Craig is right alongside Brooks in the Chatham lineup. after hitting .382 – tops among sophomore – and earning ACC Player of the Year honors, Craig is off to a fast start with the Anglers. He has seven hits in six games, good for a .350 average, eighth in the league. The 6’3, 220-pound third baseman should be one of the league’s best all summer.

Lewis was not on the initial roster that Orleans released, but the Mercer star was a no-brainer of an addition. The 6’4, 205-pound outfielder hit .281 as a freshman but morphed into the Southern Conference Player of the Year with a huge sophomore season. He batted .367 with a .423 OBP, and blasted 17 home runs, plus 19 doubles. Lewis homered in his second Cape League game and is now tied for the league lead with three in just six games. He’s also hitting .409, good for fourth in the league.

Plenty more big-time hitters will emerge as the summer goes on. But few will have been big-time in the spring and the summer quite like Brooks, Craig and Lewis.

With Lewis and Bobby Dalbec, Orleans has a fearsome middle of the order. They each have three home runs. Unfortunately for the Firebirds, Dalbec, a standout at Arizona, has accepted an invitation to play for Team USA.

Team USA’s roster is taking shape, and Dalbec won’t be the only loss for the Cape League. Two of the top sophomore pitchers in the nation – Maryland’s Mike Shawaryn and Virginia’s Connor Jones – are on there. Shawaryn was slated for Y-D and Jones for Orleans. News came out Sunday that four Florida players will head to Team USA after the Gators finish in Omaha, and all were originally ticketed for the Cape. Pitchers A.J. Puk and Logan Shore were on the Orleans roster, power-hitting freshman J.J Schwarz was on the Y-D roster, and outfielder Buddy Reed was on the Harwich roster.

In better news, Wareham has activated Oregon’s Matt Krook. The lefty was on his way to becoming one of the best pitchers in the 2016 draft class but got hurt during his freshman year and needed Tommy John surgery. He missed this college season but will apparently begin his comeback in Wareham. Krook was mentioned on Jonathan Mayo’s very early look at the 2016 draft.

One of the few pitchers in the league to make two starts already is Orleans’ Mitchell Jordan, and he has been up to the task. The Stetson rising junior, a solid performer in the weekend rotation this year, has turned in two carbon-copy starts: five scoreless innings, one hit, five strikeouts. He’s the early league leader in strikeouts with 10.

Andrew Frankenreider saved nine games for Northern Illinois this spring and already has two for Falmouth this summer. He has allowed just one hit in 6.2 innings. Frankenreider is just the third player in Northern Illinois history to play on the Cape.

The teams with the best records so far have been the total package. Orleans, at 5-2, leads the league in team batting average and ERA. Hyannis, now 6-1, is second in both categories.

Hyannis had the makings of a pretty good offense even before late additions Bobby Melley, Justin Arrington and Jacob Noll arrived on the scene. Melley, a Cape League vet at this point, is hitting .429 with six RBI in just four games. Arrington has a hit in all but one game and is batting .438. Noll, who hit .348 for Florida Gulf Coast this year, is 4-for-8 in three games.

In addition to its Team USA guys, the initial Orleans roster also had a pair of six-round picks in Ohio State’s Travis Lakins and Loyola Marymount’s David Fletcher. Neither is on the active roster right now. We’ll see if they make an appearance at some point this summer.

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015

Firebirds have big talent on the way

Orleans finished with the fourth-best record in the league last summer. With 11 incoming players heading to Omaha this week, rather than the Cape, it may be an uneven start to 2015, but on paper, the Firebirds once again have one of the league’s more talented teams.

FIVE TO WATCH

1. Bobby Dalbec
2. David Fletcher
3. A.J. Puk
4. Connor Jones
5. Zack Collins

NOTABLE

Orleans will be hard-hit by the College World Series, with 11 players on teams that are bound for Omaha. So the team on the field in Tuesday’s opener will look different than this one.

That said, there’s a lot of talent with or without the Omaha crew. The Firebirds have two returning standouts in Bobby Dalbec and David Fletcher and three players who were their conference’s freshmen of the year last year.

Dalbec has received a Team USA invite, as well, after he played for Orleans last summer. The two-way standout smacked 15 home runs for Arizona this spring.

Fletcher was great for Orleans last summer, with a .299 average and the same kind of presence at shortstop that made him the Alaska League’s top prospect in the summer of 2013 before he even got to college. He’s as good a building block as any team in the league can claim this year.

Virginia star Nathan Kirby, who was drafted last night, was ticketed for Orleans last year but never made it. His teammate, Connor Jones, who emerged as an ace when Kirby was hurt for part of this season, is now slated to be a Firebird.

Hayden Stone pitched 11 innings for Orleans last summer and allowed just one earned run. He’s slated to be back, although he has missed a lot of time for Vanderbilt this spring. Teammate John Kilichowski has bided his time for the Commodores behind first-round picks Carson Fulmer and Walker Buehler.

Ohio State had some standout freshmen in 2014 and three of them are headed to Orleans. Pitcher Tanner Tully was the Big 10 Freshman of the Year, Travis Lakins has joined him in the weekend rotation and outfielder Ronnie Dawson was one of the Buckeyes’ best hitters.

Kent State seems to churn out pitching prospects more than any other non-power conference program, and Eric Lauer may be next in line. A 17th-round pick out of high school, he struck out 103 this year.

Lauer, Lakins, Tully and Cameron Neff make up a pretty good foundation for a starting rotation, even before you factor in late arrivals. Logan Shore and A.J. Puk are stars for Florida and the aforementioned Jones has been terrific for Virginia.

Two of the best hitters for an Omaha-bound Miami team have Orleans as their next stop. Zack Collins hit 15 homers this year while Willie Abreu is a former 14th-round pick.

PITCHERS

Parker Bean – FR – Liberty – Big right-hander had ERA over seven in debut season
Alec Bettinger – SO – Virginia – Mid-week starter last year slid into full-time bullpen role and has 4.80 ERA
Chandler Blanchard – SO – Pepperdine – Strong reliever as freshman had 4.99 ERA, saved four games as a sophomore
Adam Haseley – FR – Virginia – Two-way player hit .252, put up 2.66 ERA in 10 appearances on the mound
Connor Jones – SO – Virginia – With UVA ace Nathan Kirby ailing, emerged as Cavs’ workhorse, going 7-2, 2.96 ERA, 105 Ks in 103.1 IP
John Kilichowski – SO – Vanderbilt – Lefty has started and relieved for Omaha-bound Commodores and has 2.97 ERA
Travis Lakins – SO – Ohio State – Tossed perfect game in Prospect League last summer, posted 3.75 ERA in weekend rotation this year
Eric Lauer – SO – Kent State – 17th-round pick in 2013 broke out as one of best in MAC this year with 1.98 ERA, 103 Ks
Cameron Neff – SO – St. Mary’s – Workhorse had 5 complete games as a freshman, delivered 2.32 ERA as a sophomore
Stephen Nogosek – SO – Oregon – Led team in appearances this year with 39 and had 2.02 ERA with 60 Ks
A.J. Puk – SO – Florida – Towering righty, Perfect Game’s top Northwoods prospect last summer, has team-best 99 Ks this season
Kit Scheetz – SO – Virginia Tech – Lefty made nine starts this year, had 4.34 ERA in those games
Logan Shore – SO – Florida – SEC Freshman of the Year in 2014 continues to shine with 2.50 ERA this year as Friday starter
Hayden Stone – SO – Vanderbilt – Struck out 80 in 58 relief innings last year but was limited to three appearances this season
Tanner Tully – SO – Ohio State – Reigning Big 10 Freshman of the Year had 4-4 record, 4.32 ERA in sophomore season

CATCHERS

Jeremy Martinez – SO – USC – Steady in first two years with Trojans, hit .296 this season
Sean Murphy – SO – Wright State – Horizon League Freshman of the Year in 2014 hit .329 with 4 HR this year

INFIELDERS

Zack Collins – SO – Miami – ACC’s top freshman in 2014 hitting .303 with 15 HR, 70 RBI as Miami heads to Omaha
Bobby Dalbec – SO – Arizona – Two-way player had huge sophomore season at the dish, hitting .319 with 15 HR
David Fletcher – SO – Loyola Marymount – Started 41 games at SS for Orleans last year, hit .308 and stole 14 bases this spring
T.J. Nichting – SO – UNC Charlotte – All-Star in Great Lakes League last summer scuffled to .198 average in sophomore year
Daniel Pinero – SO – Virginia – 20th-round pick in 2013 has been starting SS for two years, hit .300 with 6 HR this season
Colby Woodmansee – SO – Arizona State – Shortstop had solid sophomore year, hitting .308 with 5 HR, team-best 44 RBI
Nick Zammarelli – FR – Elon – Lincoln, R.I., native hit .288 with 7 HR in first season with Phoenix

OUTFIELDERS

Willie Abreu – SO – Miami – 14th-round pick in 2013, batting an even .300 and ranks fourth on team with six home runs
Ronnie Dawson – SO – Ohio State – Picked up where he left off after big freshman year, hitting .279 with 7 HR, 16 SB
Austin Miller – SO – Loyola Marymount – A Freshman All-American last year like teammate Fletcher, hit .314 with three homers this spring
Bryan Reynolds – SO – Vanderbilt – Consensus Freshman All-American last year hitting .311 with 5 HR, 17 SB this year