For the second year in a row, we’ve got a Cape League team off to a red-hot start.
Last year, it was the Bourne Braves. They started 9-0-2 and didn’t lose their first game until July.
This summer, it’s the Cotuit Kettleers. With a 5-3 win over Wareham on Tuesday, the Kettleers pushed their league-best record to 8-0.
This is not a smoke and mirrors situation. The Kettleers have scored 41 runs, the most in the league, while allowing just nine, by far the fewest. Everything is clicking.
The runs allowed number really sticks out. Cotuit has won five games in shutout fashion. The team ERA is at 0.79. Eight pitchers have yet to allow an earned run; only four pitchers have given up an earned run. Harrison Cohen (George Washington) and Tyler Bosma (Kentucky) have led the way among starters, both posting 0.00 ERAs. Jackson Kelley has been nails as a long reliever, striking out 13 across seven shutout innings from the bullpen.
In Wednesday’s game, Daniel Brooks was tagged for three runs in 2.1 innings, but the bullpen didn’t surrender another run. Ethan Chenault (UNC Wilmington) was credited with the win thanks to 3.2 innings of no-hit ball. T.J. Brock (Ohio State) earned his second save.
At the plate, Ryan Ritter (Kentucky) has been the team’s most consistent producer, much as he was last summer. Ritter had a 12-game hitting streak in the second half of the season last year and has picked up where he left off. He’s batting .357 with two homers and six RBI. Brooks Baldwin (UNC Wilmington), CJ Kayfus (Miami) and Carter Trice (NC State) have also been hot. Baldwin has stolen a league-high seven bases. And though he’s only played in three games thus far, Chandler Simpson (Georgia Tech) is doing exactly what he did in the spring, when he led the nation in hitting. Simpson is 7-for-11 thus far.
The next team that has a shot at the Kettleers is Falmouth on Wednesday.
CCBL honors
The first weekly awards were handed out by the league this week. Jared Lyons (George Mason) of Y-D was named the Pitcher of the Week and Travis Honeyman (Boston College) of Orleans is the Hitter of the Week.
Lyons didn’t have a great spring at George Mason, finishing with an ERA over five, but he’s been terrific in two outings for the Red Sox. He has yet to allow a run, while striking out 10.
Honeyman is no stranger to summer success. He broke a longstanding league record in the New England Collegiate Baseball League last year with the Ocean State Waves en route to league MVP honors. He’s batting .385 with the Firebirds and showing pop, with three home runs, tied for the early league lead.
Bloodlines
Remember Homer Bush? With a name like that, you probably do. He had a nice run in Major Legaue Baseball for a few years, and now his son, Homer Bush, Jr., is on the path. After a solid spring with Grand Canyon, Bush Jr. is playing for Y-D this summer and just logged a three-hit night on Tuesday.
MVP Return
With Brock Wilken back in Harwich, I believe this is the first time a reigning Cape League MVP has returned to the league since 2002. That year, Matt Murton followed up his 2001 MVP with a return trip to Wareham.
Wilken is back in a Mariner uniform after hitting .302 with six home runs in his MVP campaign last summer. In the spring, he hit .272 with 23 homers.
So far this summer, Wilken is at .235 and he hit his first homer on Sunday.
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