Author: Will Geoghegan

And there’s plenty of good news for Cape League teams.

Eleven players who didn’t make the final cut are on Cape League rosters, which means we can expect most of them to head to the Cape. The list is headed by North Carolina’s Dustin Ackley (Harwich), Rice’s Ryan Berry (Bourne) and Indiana’s Josh Phegley (Wareham).

Here’s the link to the final roster. It does say that two more players will be named, so this isn’t quite set in stone.

Here are the Cape League players left off the final roster, at this point:

Dustin Ackley – 1B – North Carolina – Sophomore – Harwich
Ryan Berry – P – Rice – Sophomore – Bourne
Dusty Coleman – SS – Wichita State – Sophomore – Bourne
Brian Fletcher – OF – Auburn – Freshman – Falmouth
Justin Marks – P – Louisville – Sophomore – Chatham
Tommy Medica – C – Santa Clara – Sophomore – Harwich
Ryan Ortiz – C – Oregon State – Sophomore – Y-D
Josh Phegley – C – Indiana – Sophomore – Wareham
Drew Pomeranz – P – Ole Miss – Freshman – Bourne
Kyle Seager – 2B – North Carolina – Sophomore – Chatham
Rick Hague – SS – Rice – Freshman – Wareham

Big lifts for several teams, obviously. If Ackley does indeed head to Harwich, he becomes the best pure hitter on the Cape. Medica would also fill a big hole for the Mariners.

Bourne picks up two big-time pitchers, including Berry, one of the best in the nation. Dusty Coleman will also make a big difference.

Two teams in last place right now — Chatham and Wareham — should also feel pretty good. Phegley probably becomes the top catching prospect on the Cape, and Hague should be one of the top freshmen. Seager and Marks will help out a lot in Chatham.

Of the 20 players who did make the final roster, 14 were on Cape League rosters. That list includes Kyle Gibson (Falmouth), Derek Dietrich (Wareham), Stephen Strasburg (Y-D) and Ryan Jackson (Hyannis).

It will also be interesting to see if a couple of the players who didn’t make it and who aren’t on Cape League rosters come to the Cape as late additions. Tennessee pitcher Bryan Morgado, Texas A&M outfielder Brooks Raley, Texas pitcher Chance Ruffin and Missouri outfielder Aaron Senne all fall into that category.

Three games got postponed last night due to rain, but two games did go into the books. Brewster beat Orleans 6-5 to move to 4-4-1. Y-D blew past Chatham 7-1 to get to the same record. Both those teams have won two straight.

The Whitecaps didn’t have an offensive explosion like they did Sunday when they put up eight runs against Wareham. But they got a grand slam by James Meador (San Diego) in the fifth inning to blow things open. Orleans starter Kyle Smith (Kent State) had started that inning with a perfect game intact.

Meador, who had a great season for San Diego, has struggled mightily so far this summer. The grand slam was just his second hit in 24 at-bats. However, both of his hits have gone for extra-bases, and he has six RBI. Brewster needs his bat to come alive.

As for Orleans, Smith took a 2.25 ERA into the game and it looked like it would be dropping until things unraveled. At the plate for the Cardinals, Angelo Songco (Loyola-Marymount), who’s trying to wedge his way into a crowded Orleans outfield, went 3-for-4 with two RBI.

Over in Chatham last night, Y-D got a dominant performance from Shawn Tolleson (Baylor). He struck out 10 and allowed just one run in 5.1 innings. Greg Peavey (Oregon State) went 3.2 scoreless innings after a rain delay and picked up a save. Peavey, a freshman, had allowed five runs in six innings last time out.

The Y-D offense, meanwhile, had another strong game. The Red Sox have scored six runs or more in four consecutive games. Five players had two hits for the Red Sox, while Nick Liles (Western Carolina) continued his hot start with one hit and two RBI. He now leads the league in batting average, hits, stolen bases and on-base percentage. He’s second in RBI.

What to Watch For Tonight

• There he is. Jerry Sullivan, my pick for pitcher of the year, will make his first start tonight when Y-D visits Orleans. Sullivan, a sophomore from Oral Roberts, had a 3.61 ERA this spring with 104 strikeouts and 23 walks.

• Brandon Workman (Texas) and Sammy Solis (San Diego) will take the hill in a match-up of top freshmen as Wareham hosts Chatham. Workman and Solis have made one start each, probably the best start their respective teams have gotten this summer.

• Also, Team USA is set to announce its final roster today. That means we’ll find out which players might be coming to the Cape, after all. I will keep an eye on their web site all day and get something up as soon as I see it.

We’re still at a point in the season where one good day can raise a batting average dramatically. Chatham’s Devin Lohman (Long Beach State), for instance, was hitting .190 through Saturday. After going 3-for-3 with three RBI on Sunday, Lohman is hitting .292 and is tied for the league lead in RBI.

A couple of teams made similar leaps last night. Chatham, Yarmouth-Dennis and Brewster, all of whom were treading water with two losses near the bottom of the Eastern Division, picked up wins last night. Brewster and Y-D are now just a point behind first-place Harwich while Chatham is two points back.

Brewster came up with the most lopsided victory, topping Wareham 8-0. Ryan Wheeler (Loyola Marymount) went 2-for-4 with three RBI, and Tim Clubb (Missouri State) turned in the team’s best starting pitching performance of the year, going seven shutout innings while striking out three.

In Yarmouth, Y-D withstood a late rally from Harwich to hold on for a 6-4 victory. The Red Sox got three hits from Nick Liles, who upped his league-leading average to .484. DeAngelo Mack (South Carolina) had four hits.

Finally, Chatham squeaked out its second one-run victory in as many nights. The aforementioned Lohman led the way offensively while reliever Jeff Lorick (Virginia) tossed two shutout innings and picked up the win. A bases-loaded walk to Evan Ocheltree (Wake Forest) in the bottom of the ninth plated the winning run.

Elsewhere

• After scoring its lowest run total of the season on Saturday, Cotuit got right back on track, blowing past Orleans 11-5. Mike Bianucci (Auburn) hit a grand slam, and Robbie Shields (Florida Southern) also had a home run for the Kettleers.

• Hyannis gave itself the best record in the league with a 4-3 victory over Bourne. Chris Dominguez (Louisville) went 2-for-4 as the Mets scored all their runs in the first two innings. Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) picked up his fifth save, which puts him on a ridiculous pace. If he keeps up anything close to this, he will challenge Ryan Speier’s league record of 16. The bullpen also shined for Bourne, who got 5.1 shutout innings from Kevin Landry (William & Mary). He struck out seven and only allowed one hit.

What to Watch For Tonight

• Harwich takes on Hyannis in a battle of first-place teams. I’d expect it to be a pitchers’ duel since both teams are near the top in ERA.

This early in the season, it’s a little tough to decide what the biggest story of the week is. Everything seems like it’s in limbo, from roster movement, to lineup changes, to the parade of pitchers that take the hill every game. You can’t judge much of anything.

In a sense, I guess that is the story.

I always feel like July 1 is the day when the summer really gets going. Teams aren’t waiting on players anymore. Lineups are set. Contenders and leaders are emerging.

But it’s not like the first two weeks don’t matter. It’s a 44-game season. After two weeks, almost one third of the season will be complete. By comparison, one-third of the Major League Baseball season isn’t complete until late May.

So while this feels like an interim kind of period, it really isn’t. The players who are shining now stand a good chance of having a great summer. Same for the teams.

If I may, let me invoke some weather imagery. You have a thermometer and a barometer. The thermometer tells you what the temperature is right now. The barometer tells you what the air pressure is right now, but the more imporant piece of information it conveys involves the future. Where the pressure is going, up or down, can tell you a lot about what the weather will be.

So. The first week of the season really can’t be a barometer. It doesn’t predict anything or establish trends. But the first week can obviosuly be a thermometer.

Sticking with the theme, let’s take some temperatures.

On Fire
Cotuit (4-2) – The Kettleers may not be in first place anymore, but they’re still the best hitting team in the league. They lead the league in runs scored (43) and batting average (.307). Their lowest single-game run total of the season is three. Six of their regulars are hitting .300 or better, led by Kevin Patterson, who sits at .435.

Falmouth (5-2) – Tied with Hyannis for the best record in the league, the Commodores have won four straight games. Their offense has heated up in a big way. In those four wins, Falmouth has scored 27 runs. A.J. Pollock, Joey Wong and A.J. Wirnsberger have done the heavy lifting. Pollock is hitting .414, Wong is at .346 and Wirnsberger is hitting .320. The pitching has been a little bit up and down but good enough so far.

Hyannis (5-2) – The Mets have probably played the best all-around baseball in the league. They rank fourth in team batting average and third in pitching. Andrew Carraway and Austin Hudson have been great in the rotation, while Russell Brewer has been dominant in the closer’s role. At the plate, Trent Ashcraft, Dale Cornstubble, Steve Daniels and Casey Frawley have been very good.

Still Pretty Warm
Harwich (4-2) – The Mariners have the best record in the Eastern Division, and they’ve done it despite missing a big chunk of their original roster. Joe Sanders and D.J. Belfonte have given Harwich a big lift, while Andrew Giobbi has been a major run producer despite a low batting average. The Mariners’ bullpen has been outstanding, with Willie Kempf leading the way. Kempf hasn’t allowed an earned run in 5.1 innings.

Luke-Warm
Orleans (3-3) – So much for that great offense. On paper, the Cardinals looked like a powerful squad, but they’ve scored all of 12 runs in six games. Still, the pitching has done enough to keep Orleans in a lot of games. Brad Gemberling and Kyle Smith have turned in good starts, while Kyle Kamppi has been good out of the bullpen.

Yarmouth-Dennis (2-4-1) – Not a great record yet, but the offense has been there for the Red Sox. Their team batting average is third in the league and they have the top two hitters so far in Nick Liles and Greg Miclat, as well as the leading RBI man, Andy Wilkins. The pitching hasn’t yet caught up.

Cool
Brewster (2-4-1) – The Whitecaps have the same record as Y-D, but their numbers haven’t been good. A .230 batting average puts them in seventh, and a 4.50 ERA also puts them in seventh. While Ty Kelly, Derek Poppert and Tim Wheeler have hit the ball well, several big guns have struggled. And on the mound, it’s been shaky, except for two good starts by Buddy Bauman and some solid relief outings by Chris Lagrow and Rory McKean.

Wareham (2-4) – The Gatemen have struggled, but looking at their numbers, it’s kind of hard to tell why. Their pitching has been good — they have three starters with 0.00 ERA’s — and they’ve got a couple of guys swinging the bats well. But they haven’t been able to put it all together.

Cold
Bourne (3-4) – The offense has been pretty solid, with Kyle Roller and Ross Wilson leading the way. But the pitching just hasn’t been good. The Braves have seven pitchers with ERA’s over six. Still, Bourne gets a little extra credit for powering through it, and staying just a game under .500.

Ice Cold
Chatham (2-5) – While it’s hard to see why Wareham is struggling, it’s not hard to see for the A’s. Their team batting average and team ERA both rank ninth in the league. Considering my preseason thoughts, I’m still kind of surprised, to be honest, but the team that’s been out there — especially the pitching staff — is just a shell of the one that looked great on paper.

Alright, that’s enough with the weather. Here’s some random notes from the season’s first week.

• Team USA won’t announce its final roster until Tuesday, but it looks like at least one player already knows. Baylor infielder Shaver Hansen, who was with Team USA on its tour of the NECBL, was in the Harwich lineup Saturday night. He went 0-for-3.

• Speaking of Team USA, I live in Rhode Island, so I went to their game Thursday against the Newport Gulls. 2007 Cape Leaguer Kyle Gibson was impressive despite giving up some solid hits. At one point, he struck out five. I was also extremely impressed with Tennesse’s Kentrail Davis. He was absolutely crushing the ball.

• More Team USA: I flew to Illinois on Friday, and who did I see in the airport that morning? Team USA. They were headed, I believe, to Raleigh-Durham. They were pretty easy to pick out of the crowd, what with the gloves tied to their backpacks. Interestingly, I don’t think I saw all-everything pitcher Stephen Strasburg. It’s possible I missed him, or that he was taking a flight somewhere else. My wild imagination had me thinking there’s a chance he’s not going with Team USA, and that he decided to stay in New England and head to the Cape, where he’s still listed on the Y-D roster. I think that’s unlikely, though. He may have bigger plans: A Pitcher With the Talent to Take On the World.

• A couple of other interesting names popped up on rosters the last few days. Oklahoma’s J.T. Wise, who played at LSU last year and then on the Cape, is now playing for Harwich. He hit .278 this spring with seven home runs. Vanderbilt’s Nick Christiani, who had four saves last summer for Orleans, is pitching for Brewster. UC Irvine’s Bryce Stowell, who pitched for Hyannis last year, is on the Bourne roster. Northeastern’s Mike Tamsin is back with Y-D for the second straight year.

• Nebraska’s Dan Jennings, a ninth-round pick who made one appearance for Cotuit, has signed with the Marlins.

• Anybody know where Jerry Sullivan is? He was my pick for pitcher of the year, but he hasn’t shown up in any of Y-D’s box scores.

• A few other players whose names I haven’t seen (other than CWS and Team USA guys): Louisville’s Andrew Clark (Falmouth), Indiana’s Matt Bashore (Wareham) and Kentucky’s Chris McClendon (Y-D).

• Greg Miclat is showing why he was a fifth-round pick this month. He’s leading the league in hitting, and he has five stolen bases.

• Miclat isn’t the only one putting up those kinds of numbers. In fact, his teammate Nick Liles is tied with him for the league lead in batting average, and he has six steals. Liles, from Western Carolina, has played both infield and outfield, but has been great wherever he’s been. I like it when small-school guys make a name for themselves on the Cape, and with this start, Liles has a golden opportunity.

• A lot of hitters came up with some fireworks in the first week, but a few more were just below that level, turning in quietly solid weeks. A few of those guys: Bourne’s Ross Wilson (.296), Chatham’s Aaron Miller (.304, 2 RBI), Cotuit’s Brett Jackson (.296, 1 HR, 7 RBI), Falmouth’s Trevor Coleman (.292, 7 RBI) and Ryan Jones (.267, 2 HR, 5 RBI), and Wareham’s Raynor Campbell (.296).

• And a quick programming note: The first week of the season happened to coincide with a very busy week at work, so I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted. In the weeks to come, look for the daily fog feature, as well as a lot of other things.

(A little late today, but I was flying home from Illinois this morning, so I didn’t get a chance to do it.)

It seems that Andrew Carraway is a bit underappreciated.

His freshman year at Virginia, the 6’1 righthander posted a 2.91 ERA. His sophomore year, he went 7-0 with a 3.60 ERA. Then this season, he went 4-3, and though his ERA was a bit high at 4.03, he struck out 87 with just 12 walks in 75.1 innings.

Those are really, really good numbers.

And yet, when the ACC all-conference teams came out this year, Carraway was nowhere to be found. When the draft rolled around, his name was never called. For whatever reason, nobody seems to consider Carraway a top-shelf player.

But people might start taking notice.

Carraway, pitching for Hyannis this summer, turned in another dominant start last night. He went five innings, allowing four hits and no runs. He struck out seven and walked just one. In the process, as Hyannis beat Wareham 4-1, Carraway became just the third pitcher to two wins.

With his first start factored in, Carraway has clearly been the pitching star of the first week. These are his numbers so far: 10.1 IP, 7 H, 0R, 14 K, 1 BB. For a comparison, those look a lot like the numbers you’d see last year in two starts from Aaron Crow.

Of course, Crow raised his stock dramatically and became a first-round pick with his big summer. Since Carraway has been so far off the radar, and since he didn’t get drafted at all this year, he doesn’t have the profile of someone whose potential rise could take him that high. But this time last year, Crow wasn’t that high on draft boards, either.

Elsewhere

• Also of note in the Hyannis win, Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) picked up his fourth save of the year. He has saved all but one of the Mets’ wins.

• All of a sudden, the juggernaut known as the Cotuit Kettleers find themselves in third place. Last night’s 5-3 loss to Harwich, combined with wins by Hyannis and Falmouth moved the Kettleers down two notches.

• Auburn’s Joe Sanders led the way in Harwich’s victory, going 4-for-4 with a double and a home run. Andrew Giobbi (Vanderbilt), one of the league leaders in RBI, added two more. Starting pitcher Chris Manno (Duke) allowed one run in 5.1 strong innings.

• Falmouth won a slugfest with Y-D 11-7. Y-D starter Eddie Burns (Georgia Tech) was perfect through three innings before the Commodores got to him. Joey Wong (Oregon State), who’s now hitting .346, went 3-for-5 with three runs scored. Greg Miclat (Virginia) had three hits for Y-D to tie teammate Nick Liles (Western Carolina) for the batting average lead. They’re both hitting .444. Andy Wilkins, a freshman from Arkansas, had three RBI to bring his league-best total to nine.

• Bourne improved to 3-4 with a 6-1 victory over Orleans. Nick McCully (Coastal Carolina) worked five good innings for the Braves, while Kyle Roller and Stephen Batts, both from East Carolina, each had two hits and two RBI.

• Chatham got its second win of the season with a 5-4 victory over Brewster. The A’s continued with a patchwork pitching staff, this time getting a decent start from Bobby Hernandez (Barry University) and strong relief work from the USC tandem of Kevin Couture and Brad Boxberger. Boxberger, a starter last summer, picked up his second save so he may be taking on the closer’s role this year.

What to Watch For Tonight

• Charles Brewer (UCLA) will make his first appearance for Chatham as the A’s host Falmouth. Brewer was great last summer and was slated to be one of the big pieces in Chatham’s staff this year. With a team ERA of 4.87, they need him.

If you had given me Chatham and Cotuit as options, and asked me to pick which one would be in first place and which one would be in last place a week into the season, I would have taken Chatham as the first-place sqaud and Cotuit as the last-place team.

And I would have been dead wrong. Cotuit pounded Chatham 13-2 last night to improve to 4-1, the best record in the league. Chatham fell to 1-5, the worst record in the league.

That’s the way these things go sometimes in the Cape League. So much is different than what was on paper. You just never know what’s going to happen.

Chatham’s pitching, for instance, hasn’t been anything close to what the A’s hoped it would be. And Friday night, that was a bad recipe because Cotuit’s offense has been everything and more.

The 13 runs were a league-high so far this summer, and it’s no surprise that the Kettleers were the ones doing it. Mike Bianucci (Auburn) went 2-for-5 with a home run, a double, three runs scored and four RBI. Jeff Kobernus (Cal) had four hits. In all, only one player in the Cotuit lineup didn’t have a hit. For the season, four Cotuit starters are hitting .400 or above, led by Kevin Patterson (Aubrun), whose .467 mark is best in the league.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t see this coming. Cotuit’s offense looked good but it looked good in the way that every Cape League offense looks good. I guess the difference is that everybody is off to a hot start.

Elsewhere

• Clearly, Cotuit’s offense doesn’t need much help, but it just got some. Arizona State’s Jason Kipnis, a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft, was in the lineup last night for the first time. Kipnis hit .367 with 13 home runs this spring.
• I don’t want to forget about Cotuit’s pitching, either. Nick Hernandez (Tennessee) had his second straight strong start. He allowed one run in six innings.
• Three Falmouth pitchers combined for a shutout to lead the Commodores past Harwich 1-0. Jorge Reyes (Oregon State) turned in a solid start with five shutout innings, and Shaeffer Hall (Kansas) teamed up with Jonathan Kountis (Ohio Dominican) to keep the shutout intact. Matt Zielinski (Richmond) was solid for Harwich, allowing just an unearned run.
• It looked a lot like last year in Hyannis last night, as Austin Hudson (Central Florida) and Jason Franzblau (Arizona State) teamed up to allow one run in Hyannis’ 8-1 victory over Orleans. Both those players were on the team last year. The Mets’ offense got going thanks to a 3-for-4 day by leafoff man Ryan Eden (New Orleans).
• Dallas Keuchel (Arkansas) tossed six shutout innings for Wareham, but the bullpen couldn’t hold a lead as Y-D battled back for a 10-3 victory. Josh Rutledge (Alabama) led the offensive charge for the Red Sox with three hits, while Nick Liles (Western Carolina) added two hits and three RBI.

What to Watch For Tonight

• A familiar face will take the hill for Y-D as Georgia Tech’s Eddie Burns is scheduled to start. Burns went 5-1 last summer on the Cape. Burns just finished his redshirt junior year, but he was a 39th-round pick in the draft this year.

Three of Hyannis’ five games have ended with Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) on the mound.

And that’s a good thing.

The Mets are 3-2, and all three of their wins have been saved by Brewer, the league leader in that category. Last night, he notched his first two-inning save as Hyannis beat Y-D 6-4. It must have felt like a breeze, though, because Brewer’s first two saves came with one-run leads.

Brewer has done it all without blinking. He has faced two batters over the minimum in his four innings of work and has struck out three.

Sometimes, guys who close in the Cape League aren’t closers by trade. Remember Tim Lincecum? But Brewer is no stranger to the ninth inning. A redshirt freshman, Brewer spent much of the spring as Vanderbilt’s closer, and he put some impressive numbers. He finished the year with eight saves, a 3.52 ERA and 52 strikeouts against 10 walks in 46 innings.

For Hyannis, Brewer is at the back of end of what’s been a very strong bullpen. As a staff, Mets’ pitchers have allowed 16 earned runs this summer. The eight guys who have pitched out of the bullpen have allowed four of them. That’s one-fourth of the runs, and they’ve come in exactly one-half of the innings. In addition to Brewer, Drew Muren (CS Northridge) and Ashur Tolliver (Arkansas-Little Rock) have been standouts. Muren has 11 strikeouts in six innings, while Tolliver got the win last night.

Elsewhere

• Hyannis also got some strong performances at the plate last night. Catcher Dale Cornstubble (Central Michigan) broke out of a slump with a 3-for-3 day, his first three hits of the season. Michael Glantz, who plays for Hyannis coach Rick Robinson at Young Harris College, had a three-run double. For Y-D, Greg Miclat (Virginia) and Nick Liles (Western Carolina) had two hits apiece. Liles now leads the league with a .476 batting average.

• Brewster’s Nate Lape (Marshall) finally hit something that wasn’t a home run. Heading into Thursday, he had two hits and both were home runs. Thursday, he had two more hits, one a double and one a single. He also had two RBI to help power Brewster past Bourne 8-2. An RBI triple by James Meador (San Diego), his first hit in 19 at-bats this summer, broke the game open.

• Falmouth got another strong performance from the top of its lineup to edge Chatham 7-6. Leadoff hitter A.J. Pollock (Notre Dame) and two-hole hitter Joey Wong (Oregon State) each went 3-for-5. Pollock is now hitting .429 while Wong is at .353. Both were in the middle of a six-run fifth-inning that accounted for most of Falmouth’s offense.

• All in all, it was pretty fitting that I started this thing with a closer. It was a rough night for starters. In the three games, six starters combined to allow 20 earned runs.

What to Watch For Tonight

• Oregon State’s Jorge Reyes will make his first start of the year for Falmouth. Last spring, Reyes was the toast of the town in Corvallis when he led the Beavers to their second straight national championship as the College World Series MVP. But this spring, he struggled to a 7.08 ERA. Tonight at Harwich, he’ll have his first chance to bounce back.

So, last night, I planned on writing about some of the guys on the leaderboard, but I gave up pretty early because the leading hitter was D. Mack . . . and I couldn’t find his first name anywhere. Not on the category leaders page, not on the stats page, not on the Y-D roster. He was just D. Mack. A google search netted results relating to Connie Mack, a football player named Darrell Mack, and a MySpace page for D. Mack, male, 24-years-old from the United States who likes to go to movies.

Finally, though, someone knows his name. As noted in the Cape Cod Times wrap-up this morning, it’s DeAngelo. He’s from South Carolina.
And he’s crushing the ball.

Mack went 2-for-5 last night with three RBI to lead Yarmouth-Dennis past Cotuit 9-8. It was the first win of the season for the Red Sox and the first loss for Cotuit. Mack is now hitting .500, tops in the league.

The game was a match-up of the two top-hitting teams in the league and the score certainly reflected that. Y-D starter Greg Peavey (Orgeon State) and Cotuit starter Mario Hollands (UC Santa Barbara) each gave up five earned runs as the offenses got in gear during the middle innings.

Josh Rutledge (Alabama) had three hits and three RBI and Whit Merrifield (South Carolina) added two hits for Y-D. Kevin Patterson (Auburn), Jeff Schaus (Clemson) and Dallas Poulk (NC State) all had hits for Cotuit, keeping themselves in the top 10 in batting average. Mike Bianucci (Auburn) had a home run.

Elsewhere

• Some strong pitching performances last night, with Wareham’s Brandon Workman (Texas) leading the way. He tossed six shutout innings and struck out eight as Wareham beat Bourne 6-0. Workman, a freshman, was a third-round pick in the 2007 draft, so he was about as highly-touted as it gets when he arrived in Austin. He didn’t have a great spring, though, finishing with a 5.19 ERA. This was his first appearance on the Cape and he made it count. You’ll often see freshmen who had shaky springs come back with big summers, and I think Workman is a prime candidate to do that.

• Another freshman had a strong showing, as Chatham’s Sammy Solis (San Diego) allowed two unearned runs and struck out eight in five innings as the A’s topped Hyannis 5-3. It was the first win of the year for the A’s, who scored more runs and allowed fewer than in their previous three games. Chatham shuffled its lineup, putting Grant Green (USC) in the leadoff spot. He delivered one hit, while Devin Lohman (Long Beach) smacked a three-run home run. Drew Muren (Cal State Northridge) worked four innings of relief and struck out eight for the Mets.

• A.J. Pollock (Notre Dame) went 3-for-5 with three runs scored to lead Falmouth past Brewster 8-4. Connor Powers (Mississippi State) had his first two hits of the summer for Brewster.

• The game of the night was in Orleans, where the Cardinals beat Harwich 3-2 in 12 innings. Shaun Kort (Nevada) won it with an RBI double in the 12th. Four Orleans relievers combined for seven shutout innings to keep the game tied. Andrew Giobbi (Vanderbilt) had a home run for Harwich to vault into the league lead in RBI.

• Chris Dominguez (Louisville), a recent addition to the Hyannis roster, was in the lineup for the second straight night. He’s still hitless, but keep an eye on him. He’s got all the potential in the world.

What to Watch For Tonight

• Only three games tonight, all involving teams trying to find their way. The Y-D vs. Hyannis match-up looks like an interesting one. Ryan Sharpley (Notre Dame) gets the ball for the Mets. He struck out seven in three innings of relief last time out. He’ll try to shut down a Y-D offense that has scored 14 runs in its last two games.

Cotuit and Harwich both moved to 3-0 last night, and that’s no surprise, considering the way those two teams are hitting. The Mariners and Kettleers have scored 19 runs apiece to tie for the league lead. At a point in the season where pitchers are generally ahead of hitters, when you can average more than six runs a game, you’re probably going to win a lot.

Both teams scored a lot of their runs with one big performance — Cotuit scored 10 on Monday, Harwich scored nine on Saturday — but they also haven’t scored fewer than four runs in a game.

On Tuesday, Cotuit put up five runs on eight hits in a 5-3 victory over Wareham. Leadoff hitter Brett Jackson (Cal) went 2-for-4 with two RBI, while Jeff Schaus (Clemson) was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Jackson moved into a tie for the league lead in RBI with five, while Schaus bumped his average to .500, good for a second-place tie with teammate Kevin Patterson (Auburn) and several others.

In Harwich, the Mariners beat Y-D 7-6 in 11 innings on a game-winning sacrifice fly by Andrew Giobbi (Vanderbilt). Fitting, because Giobbi exemplifies Harwich’s early-season success. He’s hitting only .143 so far, but he’s second in the league with four RBI. That’s the way it’s gone for the Mariners. Their team average is more than 40 points below league-leader Cotuit, but as noted they’ve scored the same amount of runs. It’s all about clutch hitting and the Mariners have had it. D.J. Belfonte, who had a tough year with Nebraska, has been Harwich’s best hitter. His 3-for-5 performance on Tuesday moved his average to .462.

Elsewhere

• Before yesterday, there had been three home runs hit this season. Brewster matched that number with one game. Nate Lape (Marshall) belted two home runs and Ryan Wheeler (Loyola-Marymount) added another to send Brewster to a 6-4 victory over Hyannis. That duo combined for five of Brewster’s six hits.

• While Cotuit leads the league in batting average, Y-D isn’t far behind, sitting in second place with a very good .308 mark. And yet, the Red Sox don’t have a win. They’re 0-2-1, with last night’s loss to Harwich coming by a run and the other loss coming by three runs.

• Two winless teams met in Chatham, and Bourne came away with the victory. Jamie Johnson (Oklahoma), Justin Bour (George Mason) and Ross Wilson (Alabama) each had two hits to lead the Braves. Starting pitcher Ricky Bowen (Mississippi State) allowed two runs, struck out nine and didn’t walk anybody in six strong innings.

• Orleans got two hits from Tim Wheeler (Sacramento State) and two from Angelo Songco (Loyola Marymount) to beat Falmouth 2-1. Kyle Smith (Kent State) allowed a run in four innings of work, while Kyle Kamppi (Georgia Southern) picked up his second save. The Cardinals’ pitching staff also continued a recent trend. Four pitchers combined for just two strikeouts. On the year, Orleans pitchers have 11 strikeouts, by far the lowest number in the league. In their season-opening win, they actually didn’t strike out anybody.

What to Watch For Tonight

• Four of the five leading hitters will be on the same field as Cotuit visits Y-D.

• San Diego freshman Sammy Solis will get the start against Hyannis and try to get Chatham its first win. He’ll go against Matt Ridings, who had a tremendous season at Western Kentucky.

The Cape Cod Times reported today that Brewster pitcher B.J. Dail was seriously injured late Sunday night when he was pinned under a truck driven by teammate Ryan Woolley. Dail is at Mass General Hospital in Boston, where his condition has been upgraded from critical to serious, while Woolley has been charged with “operating under the influence of alcohol resulting in serious bodily injury, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and minor in possession of alcohol.”

I don’t really have much to add at this point. Just a real sad story all around. I hope everything works out for both Dail and Woolley.