Posted on

Minor League All-Stars: Advanced Rookie

PP4_TaylorRodgers.jpegIn an effort to keep tabs on former Cape Leaguers, I present the 2012 Cape League Minor League All-Stars. The lists are divided by level. Players who spent time at two levels are listed where they spent more time. This is the first in the series.

We begin the inaugural Minor League All-Stars series with a look at the Rookie Leagues — Appalachian and Pioneer. These teams tend not to have a ton of former Cape Leaguers, but there were a few and a few stand-outs. Taylor Rogers (pictured), dominated in six starts before a promotion to Class A.

Catcher – Josh Elander – Danville (Appalachian League) – Braves
The TCU product struggled in limited action with Bourne in 2010. He hit .260 with four home runs in 36 games for Danville.

First Base – Jeremy Schaffer – Johnson City (Appalachian League) – Cardinals
Schaffer earned post-season all-star honors in the Appy League after hitting .272 with 10 home runs and 51 RBI. Schaffer played for Brewster in 2010.
In the Running: Ben Waldrip, D.J. Hicks

Second Base – Levi Hyams – Danville (Appalachian League) – Braves
The former Cotuit Kettleer and Georgia Bulldog hit .254 with five home runs in his first pro season.

Third Base – Michael Garza – Helena (Pioneer League) – Brewers
Garza shined for Harwich in 2011, was drafted in the 20th round in June and made quick work of the Pioneer League, hitting .407 in 19 games before getting promoted to the Midwest League.
In the Running: Tyler Bream

Shortstop – Zach Vincej – Billings (Pioneer League) – Reds
The former Chatham Angler and late-round pick came out of the gates with a .336 average in his first pro season.
In the Running: Caleb Bushyhead

Outfield – Adam Walker – Elizabethton (Appalachian League) – Twins
One of the stars of the dynamic 2011 Hyannis Harbor Hawks, Walker went in the third round this spring and showed plenty of pop in his pro debut. He hit .250 with 14 home runs in 58 games.

Outfield – Evan Marzilli – Missoula (Pioneer League) – Diamondbacks
Marzilli, a former Chatham Angler, was selected in the eighth round and then made a splash in Montana, where he hit .332 with a .403 OBP.

Outfield – Jabari Henry – Pulaski (Appalachain League) – Mariners
An all-star with Harwich in 2011, Henry hit .271 with eight home runs and 26 extra-base hits in his debut.
In the Running: Andrew Toles, Beau Amaral, Drew Martinez

Starting Pitcher – Eddie Butler – Grand Junction (Pioneer League) – Rockies
Butler stood out as a reliever for Harwich in 2011. After getting picked in the 2012 supplemental first round, he shined as a starter, going 7-1 with a 2.13 ERA.

Starting Pitcher – Taylor Rogers – Elizabethton (Appalachian League) – Twins
The 2011 Cape League All-Star Game starter, Rogers headed to the Appy League after getting selected in the 11th round and dominated in six starts before getting promoted. Rogers had a 1.80 ERA to go with 39 strikeouts in 30 innings pitched.

Starting Pitcher – Jared Ray – Missoula (Pioneer League) – Diamondbacks
Ray played for Y-D way back in 2009, missed his next year at Houston with an injury and then played two more years for the Cougars before getting drafted late in 2012. He made a splash in his debut, striking out 58 in 63.2 innings with a 4.10 ERA.

Relief Pitcher – J.T. Chargois – Elizabethton (Appalachian League) – Twins
Chargois was an all-star with Brewster in 2011 and a second-round pick in 2012. In his debut, he posted a 1.69 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 16 innings.

Relief Pitcher – Mike Hauschild – Greenville (Appalachian League) – Astros
The former Dayton Flyer proved himself with Orleans in 2011, was drafted in the 33rd round and pitched well in his first pro season. He struck out 39 in 30.1 innings to go with a 1.78 ERA.
In the Running: Kevin Brandt, Patrick Johnson, Alex Keudell

Posted on

Vandy Heads BA Recruit Rankings

Year in and year out, Vanderbilt routinely sends more players to the Cape Cod Baseball League than any program in the country. If Baseball America’s recruiting class rankings (subscriber) pan out, then the Commodores will be sending some very good players over the bridges in the coming years.

The Commodores will welcome in five players who were ranked in Baseball America’s top 500 for the 2012 draft, and a total of seven players who were drafted. Right-handed pitcher Walker Buehler, who was ranked 50th and went in the 15th round, heads the class and will likely enter the spring as the country’s top recruit. A Vanderbilt player had the same distinction last year as pitcher Tyler Beede was rated No. 1 (Beede was on Cotuit’s roster but did not pitch in the summer).

The list of standouts also includes Cambridge, Mass., outfielder Rhett Wiseman, who was selected in the 25th round by the Cubs.

Among other teams on the list, Cape League mainstays UCLA, North Carolina, Stanford, LSU and Florida also make the cut. UCLA’s class is ranked second and is headlined by pitcher Hunter Virant, who was rated 53rd in draft rankings.

Posted on

Next Three All-Star Games Already Set

The Cape League announced today that it has already determined the host sites for the next three All-Star Games.

Next summer’s game will be played at Y-D’s Red Wilson Field, which last hosted an ASG in 2006.

The 2014 game will be played in Bourne, and it’ll be the first time the Braves have ever hosted. That’s kind of amazing.

In 2015, the game will head to Wareham.

Posted on

Notes for a Soon-To-Be Hot Stove

On this cold, blustery Tuesday, I thought of how much I’ll soon be missing baseball, which made me think of how much I’m already missing the Cape League. The translation of this is that pretty much any kind of day will make me think of a way I can ease into an off-season notes column. Cold and blustery? Cape League all the way.

  • It has not been the quietest off-season, due in large part to the drama in Falmouth. In case you missed it, you can catch up here. To make a long story short, Falmouth general manager Robert Clark removed manager Jeff Trundy from his post in a decision that was reportedly unilateral. The Commodores Board of Directors quickly convened and reinstated Trundy, which prompted Clark, his wife and team president Christine Clark and secretary Helen Kennedy to resign. Just a weird situation all around. I don’t know enough about the situation to take a side here, but it seems the majority opinion was with Trundy on this one. He’ll be back in the dugout next summer.

  • There were some moves in Bourne too, without any drama. Dan Dunn will take over for Tom Fink as general manager.
  • Sean Manaea got plenty of love in summer top prospect lists, but the biggest news as far his future is concerned came from Perfect Game’s Allan Simpson. In his early top 100 for the 2013 draft, Simpson put Manaea in the top spot. There’s a long way to go, obviously, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Manaea cement that status with a dominant spring. Whatever happens, there’s a decent chance a former Cape League will go No. 1 overall. Manaea, Mark Appel and Ryne Stanek are getting labeled early as the big three of college arms and they’ll all have a shot to go first. The Astros will have the first pick for the second year in a row. And though it’s only fall, Manaea is already getting scouted. Get used to it, Indiana State.

  • Plenty of Cape League alumni alive in the MLB postseason, led by the Giants tandem of Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum. I’m also a big Tommy Milone fan. The Oakland A’s lefty played for the other A’s in 2007 and was fighting the soft-tossing lefty label even then, when he didn’t make the Cape League all-star game and then surged late in the year to earn Outstanding Pitcher honors.

  • The guys at Bullpen Banter had some nice Cape League coverage and have continued it into the off-season. Al Skorupa, Peter Wardell and E. Tyler Bullock have a First Team, Second Team, Sleeper Team and a Best Tools list up there now. Check it out here.

    • Posted on

    Post-Championship Notes

    Well. That was fun, huh?

    Wareham’s comeback in game three of the Cape League championship was so epic and so special that it didn’t leave a whole lot of room for extra words in the immediate wake of it. Heck, with the picture on the previous post doing the talking, I don’t know if I needed to say anything.

    We’re a few days out, and we can add a few things.

    The first thing: it really was awesome. I started doing this blog in 2007, and I’ve been going to Cape League games since the 1990s. Never have I been to a better game than this year’s game three. I’ll remember it for a long, long time.

    A few other notes:

  • I did the power rankings all year, and I think every week, I wrote some variation of “If Wareham’s pitching ever comes around, look out.” And you know what? It finally did come around. Ultimately, it wasn’t the dominant storyline — hello home runs — but quality starts set the stage. Barrett Astin pitched great against Aaron Blair in game two, and Fred Shepard more than held his own in game three. Both those guys had struggled in the regular season, but on the biggest stage, they shined. Wareham couldn’t have done it without them.

  • The performance of Wareham’s big four — Kyle Schwarber, Tyler Horan, Daniel Palka and Mott Hyde — was going to define the series one way or another. For a while, it looked like Y-D might shut them down — and win the series as a result. And then came the ninth and 10th innings, when Schwarber, Hyde, Schwarber again and Horan turned game three into a home run derby. Kudos to those guys for finishing out great summers in style.

  • And speaking of the home runs, I haven’t seen anything official but I’m going to go ahead and assume that Wareham’s 15 playoff homers are a Cape League record. Prior to the current playoff format, the most games a team could play was six, so that’s part of it (although Wareham did it in seven games). But also, going back to 2000, the previous playoff high was seven by Falmouth in 2004, so not even close. To even things out, the best home runs per game total since 2000 is the 2007 Y-D Red Sox’s 1.4 (six in four games). Wareham’s mark was 2.1.

  • As CapeMan mentioned in a comment on the previous post, this Wareham team seemed to have that extra bit of chemistry that is often the difference in a league full of all-star teams. If you checked out Twitter after the championship, you saw a lot of “Best summer of my life” comments from the Gatemen.

  • Schwarber was an easy choice for Playoff MVP after his game-three heroics. If they were giving a Playoff Most Outstanding Player — and ignoring the championship outcome — then Robert Pehl would have walked home with a trophy. Pehl batted .357 with four home runs in seven playoff games. Though his team didn’t take the crown, it was a great finish on a terrific summer for Pehl. Interestingly, both Pehl and Schwarber are just rising sophomores.

  • Unrelated to the championship but still noteworthy, Hyannis star Sean Manaea was named Perfect Game’s Summer Player of the Year. The story is a good read. Perfect Game also unveiled its Summer All America Teams, which include 11 Cape Leaguers.

  • Finally, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for reading and commenting this summer. This was the most fun I’ve had in six years of doing this. It was a great summer. I’ve got some cool stuff planned for the next few weeks and months, so keep coming back.

    • Posted on

    A Gatemen Classic

    IMG_2228.JPG

     

    Surely this was the end. The magic would not — could not — come back for another encore.

    The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox were in control. It was their game. Sure, Wareham tied it, but Y-D jumped right back in front. And then Robert Pehl blasted his second home run of the day. Wareham was trying to keep it close, and here was Pehl, jogging the bases again, pulling his team away with every step. When he reached the plate, his teammates may as well have put a crown on his head. The playoff MVP puts the finishing touch on a championship.

    But.

    There was always a but with the 2012 Wareham Gatemen. For a long time it was a negative. They can really hit, we said, but their pitching just isn’t there. They mash the ball, but they live and die by the home run.

    And then, all of a sudden, the buts started popping up in a different context. Falmouth had its pitching lined up, but Wareham rolled. Bourne took control, but Wareham pushed through.

    Most of all — time and again over the last two weeks — it was this: Wareham trailed, but came back. Six times it happened, three at the end of the regular season and three more in the playoffs.

    Magic. Somehow, it didn’t run out.

    Pehl’s eighth inning home run gave Y-D a 5-2 lead in game three of the Cape Cod Baseball League championship series. Wareham was down to its last three outs. Preston Hatcher had retired six in a row in relief of Alex Gonzalez, who kept the Gatemen at bay with 11 strikeouts. Hatcher would have to go through the middle of Wareham’s order, but on this day, maybe it wouldn’t be quite as tough. That was to be the story, after all. Someone had finally put the clamps on the Gatemen’s big four.

    But.

    No. 3 hitter Kyle Schwarber stepped in. He was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. He hadn’t looked good on any of them. Hatcher fell behind 2-0 but worked back to a full count. Schwarber smashed the next pitch over the fence in right-center field. It was 5-3.

    There was still a long way to go. Joey DeNato, a Cape League veteran, relieved Hatcher and used two pitches to record the first out. The Red Sox needed just two more.

    But.

    Daniel Palka chopped the first pitch he saw back up the middle. Mott Hyde stepped in next and fell behind 1-2.

    And then he hit a moonshot. It went high and deep and it just kept going, and the higher it went, the louder the crowd got. It landed somewhere in the trees. The game was tied.

    Y-D still had life. Bryan Verbitsky came on and got his team out of the inning quickly. The Red Sox then put a runner on in the bottom of the ninth as Sean Dwyer singled.

    But.

    Colby Suggs, who had given up the home run to Pehl, pitched with new life. He struck out two in the ninth and ended it with a fly-out. In the 10th, Verbitsky struck out the first batter but Ryan Sullivan worked a walk to bring up Schwarber, the rally starter from an inning before.

    This time, he did it again, belting a 1-2 pitch over the fence in left-center and giving his team the lead. Before the celebration could even die down, Tyler Horan crushed a home run into the backyard of the house beyond the right field woods. Wareham led 8-5.

    Suggs came out for the bottom of the 10th and struck out the first batter. Carlos Asuaje followed with a solo home run, making it a two-run game, but there would be no more. Two straight flyouts to Cole Sturgeon ended the game and touched off a wild celebration. It was Wareham’s first championship since 2002, and the Gatemen reveled in it.

    It will take people a while to wrap their heads around this. Some players have already left. They’ll drive through the night, wondering what just happened.

    We can say right now that it was classic. It was crazy. It was Y-D’s game, but then it wasn’t.

    It was Wareham’s championship.

    Posted on

    Playoffs: Staying Alive

    July 13. That was the last time the Wareham Gatemen were held to less than two runs in a game. It only happened four times all year.

    Thursday night, on the biggest stage, Y-D made it happen again — and kept its season alive in the process.

    Aaron Blair (Marshall) struck out 10 in seven shutout innings and Rick Knapp (Florida Gulf Coast) twice worked out of trouble to seal the deal as the Red Sox beat the Gatemen 5-1 to tie the Cape League championship series at one game apiece. The decisive game three is set for today at 4 p.m. at Red Wilson Field.

    I made the drive over to Wareham expecting to see a championship clincher. The Gatemen have found a way to win time and again over the last two weeks. It seemed like a 10th straight win — and a title — were in the offing.

    The only big reason to think otherwise was Blair, Y-D’s ace who was held out of action for the last few weeks of the season in order to save his arm for the playoffs. He came back with five strong innings in Y-D’s first-round series.

    But this — this is what the Red Sox saved him for.

    Blair took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Wareham had a baserunner in each of the first four innings but could do nothing with them. Blair struck out eight of the first 16 batters he faced. In the first and second innings, he fanned the powerful middle of Wareham’s order right in a row.

    And while Blair was in control, so was his team. While Barrett Astin (Arkansas) gave the Gatemen a terrific start, Y-D did just enough to beat him. The Red Sox jumped on top 1-0 in the second on a single by Zak Blair (Mercyhurst) and an RBI double by Alex Blandino (Stanford). In the fifth, the Red Sox made it 2-0 thanks to an RBI groundout by Carlos Asuaje (Nova Southeastern).

    Wareham finally broke up Blair’s no-hit bid in the sixth as Ryan Sullivan (Seton Hall) smacked a double to deep right-center. When Kyle Schwarber (Indiana) followed with a walk, the no-hitter seemed like ancient history. Suddenly, the Gatemen were threatening.

    The single and the walk made the sixth Blair’s worst inning of the night in terms of what he gave up, but what he did in response may have made it his best. Blair got CCBL home run king Tyler Horan (Virginia Tech) to hit into a force-out at second. He then struck out Daniel Palka (Georgia Tech) for the third time, getting this one on a 3-2 pitch. He finished the inning by inducing a ground ball from Mott Hyde (Georgia Tech).

    Blair came back out for the seventh and got into a bit of trouble again thanks to a two-out error and a single. But he got Sullivan to fly out to end the inning. The Red Sox then added some insurance with three runs in the eighth, including two on a squeeze bunt from Justin Shafer (Florida) and an ensuing throwing error.

    Knapp relieved Blair in the bottom of the eighth, and it looked like the Gatemen might find some playoff magic for a second straight night. Schwarber reached on an infield hit, Horan singled and Palka lined a base hit into center to load the bases with nobody out.

    But just as Blair had done, Knapp buckled down. Hyde hit a ground ball to short and Y-D conceded the run for a force-out. Ty Ross (LSU) then popped out, before Knapp struck out Dustin DeMuth (Indiana) to end the inning.

    Wareham put one last rally together in the ninth, getting a double from Cole Sturgeon (Louisville). Sullivan then reached on an error, bringing up the middle of the order. But Knapp struck out Schwarber and got Horan to ground out.

    That was that. Wareham lost for the first time in 13 days.

    And Y-D stayed very much alive.

    Game 3

    Alex Gonzalez (Oral Roberts) is listed as the probable starter for the Red Sox, which should again give them the edge in that department. Gonzalez went 6.2 scoreless innings in a playoff win over Orleans.

    Wareham has not announced a starter.

    Posted on

    Playoffs: One Down

    The Wareham Gatemen have trailed at some point in their last three playoff games.

    It hasn’t mattered.

    After using a pair of late rallies to beat Bourne in the West finals, Wareham opened the 2012 Cape Cod Baseball League championship on Wednesday with more heroics. Trailing 4-2, the Gatemen scored single runs in each of the final three innings on their way to a 5-4 victory over Y-D and a 1-0 series lead. Ty Ross (LSU) hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to cap the comeback.

    Wareham has now won nine games in a row going back to the regular season, and the flair for the dramatic has been there all along. In three of the four straight wins to end the regular season, Wareham scored the decisive runs in the seventh inning or later. Now, it’s happened three more times in the playoffs.

    Watching the game online yesterday, it was hard to envision a late comeback the way things were going early on. Y-D starter Andrew Thurman (UC Irvine), who had struggled a bit in a playoff start against Chatham, looked like the Andrew Thurman who turned in a complete game shutout, one of the great performances of the summer, on July 22. This time, Thurman dominated in the early going. He struck out the side three times and ended up with 12 Ks in seven innings. In the meantime, Y-D took a 4-1 lead.

    But the Gatemen hung around. Starter Kendall Graveman (Mississippi State) gave up three runs in the second and one in the third but then settled in and gave his team a chance. He ended up going seven innings, and he didn’t allow a run after the third.

    And his team seized the chance. The Gatemen managed to touch up Thurman for single runs in the third and fourth innings on an RBI single by Cole Sturgeon (Louisville) and a solo home run by Daniel Palka (Georgia Tech), making it 4-2. Then in the seventh, Mott Hyde (Georgia Tech) walked, stole second and scored on a base hit by Ross, cutting the lead to one. In the eighth, with Thurman out of the game, the Gatemen kept coming. Palka grounded out with the bases loaded to score the tying run.

    In the ninth, Ross led off and took a 1-1 pitch from Joey DeNato (Indiana) out of the park for the 5-4 lead.

    Wareham’s bullpen, which has been a strength throughout the winning streak, then flexed its muscle again. Colby Suggs (Arkansas) worked around a walk to strike out the side in the bottom of the ninth.

    Just like that, the Gatemen — in a game that didn’t seem like theirs — had found a way.

    Game 2

    It should be a great one in Wareham tonight. The Gatemen will be going for the championship, but they’ll have to get through Cape League ERA champ Aaron Blair (Marshall), who gets the ball for the Red Sox. Barrett Astin (Arkansas), who had an ERA over six in the regular season, gets the nod for the Gatemen.

    Game time is 7 p.m.

    Posted on

    Playoffs: Finals Bound

    And then there were two.

    The hottest teams in the Cape League playoffs didn’t cool down at all last night, and now they’ll meet each other for the 2012 Cape Cod Baseball League championship. Y-D and Wareham, both No. 2 seeds, finished off their second sweeps of the playoffs last night. Y-D rolled over Orleans 9-0 while Wareham won a back-and-forth game over Bourne 8-6.

    The teams will now jump right into the championship series, with Y-D hosting Wareham today at 4 p.m.

    Something will have to give because both of these teams are clicking.

    After a 10-3 victory in game one, the Red Sox kept the pedal down and never let Orleans breathe in the 9-0 victory last night. They scored four runs in the second inning, delivered their fourth straight double-digit hit total and cruised to the win. Andrew Bowen (Oral Roberts), who had started only one game all year, came up big on the mound. He went six shutout innings, striking out eight and allowing just four hits. Brian Gilbert (Seton Hall) and Preston Hatcher (Western Carolina) didn’t allow a hit over the final three innings to finish it off.

    Offensively, Alex Blandino (Stanford) hit two home runs and drove in four while Justin Shafer (Florida) had two RBI.

    Over in Bourne, Wareham had a bit more trouble with the upset-minded Braves but found a way to win. Wareham led 6-4 going into the eighth when Bourne tied it on an L.J. Mazzilli (UConn) two-run single. But in the top of the ninth, Daniel Palka (Georgia Tech) worked a walk and Mott Hyde (Georgia Tech) belted a two-run home run off Hawtin Buchanan (Ole Miss), who had allowed just one home run in the regular season.

    Now pitching with the lead, Colby Suggs (Arkansas) gave up a leadoff double to Trent Gilbert (Arizona) but struck out the next two batters and got a groundout to end the game.

    Offensively, Wareham was led by Hyde, who went 3-for-4 with the home run, a triple and four RBI. Tyler Horan (Virginia Tech) also homered, while Dustin DeMuth (Georgia Tech) and Palka drove in runs.

    Championship Notes

  • The championship series will be a rematch of the 2006 title series between Y-D and Wareham. Y-D won that match-up for the first of its two consecutive crowns. That was also Wareham’s last appearance in the championship. Y-D has been back twice since then.

  • Andrew Thurman is scheduled to get the ball for Y-D against Kendall Graveman. Both those guys started the first playoff games for their teams, with Thurman giving up four runs in five innings but getting the win against Chatham. Graveman gave up just one run in 6.2 innings against Falmouth.

  • Y-D and Wareham have been the top two hitting teams in the playoffs. The Red Sox have a .324 average while Wareham is at .322. Wareham has scored the most runs with 40, while Y-D has totaled 33. Interestingly, they also have the best ERAs, with Y-D at 2.25 and Wareham at 2.50.

  • Y-D swept the season series 4-0, and three of the wins were lopsided. The 8-5 game on August 2 was the closest.

  • It’ll be a little bit of a youth vs. experience match-up. Y-D’s lineup typically features five freshmen, including mainstays Sam Travis and Robert Pehl. Wareham usually has just one freshman starting and its lineup has three two-year Cape Leaguers, as well as veteran Tyler Horan.

  • Prediction: Y-D was very impressive in its East finals sweep, but Wareham just has that hot playoff team feel. I’ll go with the Gatemen in three.

    • Posted on

    Playoffs: Streaking

    Entering the Cape League playoffs, nobody had won more games in a row than the Wareham Gatemen, whose four-game streak to close the season vaulted into the No. 2 seed.

    And the Gatemen still haven’t lost.

    After falling behind 3-2 in the sixth inning against No. 4 Bourne, the Gatemen clawed back with three in the eighth on their way to a 5-3 victory in game one of the Western Division finals. Wareham is now one win away from its first Cape League championship series appearance since 2006.

    Bourne has played the underdog role very well in these playoffs, knocking off Cotuit in the first round, and it looked like the Braves had some more magic when they scored three runs in the top of the sixth last night to take the lead. To that point, Wareham starter Brad Kuntz (Baylor) hadn’t allowed a run, but two errors opened the door for three to score.

    But Wareham quickly erased those troubles. Singles by Ethan Gross (Memphis) and Cole Sturgeon (Louisville) started the rally, and Kyle Schwarber (Indiana) tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Tyler Horan (Virginia Tech) followed with a two-run single, and the Gatemen were back in business.

    In the ninth, Colby Suggs (Arkansas) took over after perfect frames from Nick Rumbelow (LSU) and Jonathan Holder (Mississippi State), and Suggs followed suit. He struck out the side on 10 pitches to seal the deal for the Gatemen.

    Another Streak

    Y-D wasn’t hot coming into the playoffs. The Red Sox had lost two in a row.

    But they’re hot now.

    After sweeping Chatham in the first round, Y-D opened the Eastern Division finals with a 10-3 victory over Orleans. The Red Sox jumped to a 2-0 lead in the third, blew the game open with eight runs in the sixth and put the clamps on a late Orleans rally to take the one-game lead.

    Carlos Asuaje (Nova Southeastern), who’s now hitting .692 in the playoffs, went 2-for-4 with two RBI, and Alex Blandino (Stanford) also had two hits and two RBI. Justin Shafer (Florida) drove in two, while Sam Travis (Indiana) had two hits. The Red Sox have now had double-digit hits in every playoff game.

    The pitching was there too last night. Alex Gonzalez (Oral Roberts) struck out eight and gave up just two hits in 6.2 scoreless innings. Jonny Hoffman (Indiana) followed with 1.1 innings before Orleans got to Spenser Linney (Stanford) for three runs in the ninth. But Linney eventually finished the job.

    Cody Kulp (Shippensburg) and Kevin Brown (Bryant) hit home runs for Orleans, but those were two of just four hits.

    What to Watch

    Y-D visits Orleans at 7 p.m., while Wareham travels to Bourne for an 8 p.m. start. We could have a championship match-up by the end of tonight.