Daily Fog: On a Roll

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Daily Fog: On a Roll

Before their game on June 29, the Harwich Mariners had a team ERA of 3.33.

It's gone down a bit.

In the three games since, the Mariners haven't allowed a run. Yes, that's three consecutive shutouts. They beat Chatham 6-0 last night after 1-0 wins on Monday and Tuesday. That team ERA? Down to 2.54. For a team that at one point had been shut-out three times in four games, this is a nice little trend.

It's also one of the more impressive feats of the summer, made better by how it started. On June 29, the Mariners didn't just shut out the Y-D Red Sox, they shut them out for 13 innings. Three pitchers combined to allow just four hits.

I don't know if that inspired the Harwich pitching staff or what, but something has clicked. With last night's game tacked on, the Mariners have a scoreless streak of 31 innings. It stretches back even further if you add on the three scoreless innings at the end of Sunday's win over Bourne.

And everybody is in on it. This isn't like a Major League Baseball playoff series involving a team with a good bullpen getting to the sixth and turning out the lights. Ten different pitchers have seen action during the streak.

The starters have of course had their say. Aaron Meade (Missouri State) delivered the best performance, striking out 12 in seven shutout innings on Tuesday. Against Y-D, Mike Gipson (Florida Atlantic) allowed two hits in seven shutout innings of his own. Brett Bruening (Grayson CC) got the start last night and went 3.1 innings.

The bullpen performances have been perhaps more impressive. In that first game, Geoff Parker (Florida State) struck out five and didn't allow a hit in three innings. Matthew Price (Virginia Tech) finished it off by surrendering just two hits in three innings.

In relief of Meade on Tuesday, Les Williams (Northeastern) and Glen Troyanowski (Florida Atlantic) worked two scoreless frames, and last night, four pitchers combined to hold Chatham without a hit over the final 5.2 innings. Chase Reid (Vanderbilt) struck out five in 2.2 innings, while Garrett Davis (North Carolina), Brian Dupra (Notre Dame) and Troyanowski finished it off.

All in all, that's 10 pitchers allowing no runs on 14 hits in 31 innings.

Crazy.

And on top of all that, the Mariners also had a little offense last night, getting two RBI from Connor Powers (Mississippi State), Dan Grovatt (Virginia) and Marcus Niddifer (Kentucky).

Elsewhere

The other team that's caught fire of late is Bourne, and the Braves matched Harwich with a shutout of their own last night. Behind 5.1 strong innings from Turner Phelps (James Madison) and 3.2 no-hit innings of relief, the Braves beat Chris Sale and Y-D 1-0. A fourth-inning home run by Stefen Romero (Oregon State) -- his league-best fourth of the season -- accounted for all the offense. The Braves have won three in a row and sit in first place in the West. Sale suffered his first loss for Y-D. Micah Gibbs (LSU) made his first appearance of the summer.

Orleans blew a 7-0 lead, but came back to pick up an 8-7 victory over Brewster. The winning run scored in the bottom of the ninth when Jeremy Gould (Duke) got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Matt Packer (Virginia) picked up the win for Orleans with three scoreless innings. Gould hit a home run and Jaren Matthews (Rutgers) went 2-for-4 with three RBI. For Brewster, second-team All-American Jarrett Parker (Virginia) made his first appearance of the summer and went 1-for-3 with a triple and three RBI.

Josh Mueller (Eastern Illinois) struck out eight in five innings and Derek Dietrich (Georgia Tech) hit a three-run homer as Wareham topped Falmouth 6-4. The Commodores made two errors but they were big ones -- all of Wareham's runs were unearned.

Hyannis and Cotuit played to a 3-3 tie. The Kettleers led 3-0 into the sixth before Hyannis put up three runs to tie it. A two-run single by Ryan Cuneo (Delaware) was the big blow. For Cotuit, Chris Bisson (Kentucky) had three hits and two stolen bases.

What to Watch For Tonight

Harwich will try to keep its streak going with a game at Brewster. Rob Gariano (Fairfield) and his 0.79 ERA will be on the hill.

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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.

Saturday, July 4, 2009