I don’t remember a Cape League summer with so many two-way players having big impacts. Often, guys who pitch and hit at the collegiate level pick one for the summer. This year, by my count, 10 guys continued to do both for their Cape teams.
There was Conor Grammes for Brewster, hitting home runs one day and striking people out the next. There was Nick Osborne, signed by Orleans as a pitcher, getting a shot at the plate and signing a pro contract as a hitter.
And Friday night, there was Tristin English.
He had focused mostly on hitting this summer, charting a .300 batting average with five home runs in an all-star campaign. But he had taken the mound enough to stay sharp. After 16 appearances for Georgia Tech in the spring, he made four for the Anglers in the regular season, a stint capped by six shutout innings in his first start July 31.
His second start sent Chatham to the championship series for the first time since 2001. English went 8.2 innings in game two of the East Division finals against Brewster and was throwing a shutout for most of them. He ended up departing after giving up a home run that made it a 3-2 game, but it was a dominant performance.
English struck out two, scattered five hits and didn’t walk a batter. His outing was the longest by a Chatham starter all season, and he needed just 108 pitches to do it. A two-run homer by Gage Workman (Arizona State) kept hope alive for the Cinderella Whitecaps, but Kyle Hurt (Southern California) struck out the next batter for the final out, handing English the win he had so well earned.
Spencer Torkelson (Arizona State), Kyle McCann (Georgia Tech) and Ben Ramirez (USC) drove in one run each as Chatham steadily built the lead.
English did the rest. As noted in the Chatham coverage, it was particularly special given the injury history in English’s arm.
In a summer of strong showings by two-way players, this one goes down as the best.
What to Watch
Game one of the Cape League championship series is set for 6:30 in Wareham.