daily fog: a rainy day gem

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

daily fog: a rainy day gem

A day after three games were postponed due to rain, four games got postponed last night.

Sammy Solis is pretty happy that Chatham and Wareham decided to play.

Solis, a freshman from San Diego, tossed seven shutout innings to lead Chatham past Wareham 2-0. The 6'4 lefthander allowed just two hits, struck out eight and didn't walk anybody. It was the second strong start of the summer by Solis, who has two of Chatham's four wins. For the season, he hasn't allowed an earned run and he has struck out 16 with just one walk in 12 innings.

Last night, Solis out-dueled another top freshmen. Wareham's Brandon Workman (Texas), struck out 10 and allowed two runs in five innings. That moved him into the league lead in strikeouts (Solis is second).

Grant Green (USC) delivered all the offense off Workman with a two-run double in the second inning. And that was all the offense Chatham needed. The USC bullpen tandem of Kevin Couture and Brad Boxberger teamed up for three scoreless innings to preserve the win. Boxberger picked up his third save.

I'd say the big news out of yesterday was still Solis. Before the season, he looked like a guy who might emerge -- a big, tall freshman, highly-touted out of high school, good college numbers. His potential had me thinking he could be the top freshman pitcher on the Cape. At this rate, you can drop the freshman label. He's tied for the league lead in wins and ERA, and he's second in strikeouts. Only Hyannis' Andrew Carraway has put up similar numbers.

What to Watch For Tonight

No rain in the forecast -- that's the big one.

There were only two games originally on the schedule for tonight. Falmouth and Brewster made it three when they pushed last night's game to tonight.

Keep an eye on box scores. College World Series players should start trickling in this week.

No comments:

Post a Comment

as the fog settles in

The left-field sunset has faded. It is chilly now. You slip a sweatshirt on. The stat sheet you hold in your hands almost feels wet, the air is so damp. But the ink doesn't run. You can read it. That kid from LSU is still leading the league in home runs. That pitcher who they say throws 95 -- he's way up on the list in strikeouts.
The game is close, 3-2 through seven innings. You're staying till the end.
You look out at the field. Some fog has slipped in. It settles like smoke, just off the grass in front of the right fielder, like a cloud. When he runs through it to catch a fly ball, it looks almost magical, maybe even spiritual, like he's playing baseball in heaven.
Maybe he is.
The baseball is pure here. The players eager. The fans, maybe some of them don't know what they're seeing, maybe they just heard it was a fun night out, good for the family and everything -- but they know. They know somehow that this thing, this Cape League, is special.
Really, there's nothing like it.
I'm going to try and keep up.

Stop waxing poetic

The Cape Cod Baseball League is the top college summer league in the nation. Plenty of other leagues have cropped up of late, and some are having success, but the Cape League is still the model -- and the pinnacle. In 2006, 198 Major Leaguers had spent time in the Cape League.
The rosters are like a who's who of the best college baseball players. All the top prospects want to spend their summers on the Cape. The only better opportunity is Team USA. There are 10 teams in the league, divided into two divisions. Over the course of two months, they play 44 games. Scouts will watch many of them. They come because of the combination of talent and wood. Unlike college baseball, the Cape uses only wooden bats, providing an accurate picture of what players might do at the next level.
What else? Players live with host families. Some have part-time jobs (Jeff Bagwell worked at Friendly's). There's no admission charge at games. The level of baseball has been compared to Single A.
That should sum it up. If you have never experienced Cape League Baseball, you have missed out.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008