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All Zeroes for Newcomb

Sean Newcomb pitched briefly for Wareham in 2012 and 2013. He's been a star this spring.
Sean Newcomb pitched briefly for Wareham in 2012 and 2013. He’s been a star this spring.
Sean Newcomb started Wareham’s first game in the 2013 Cape Cod Baseball League season and tossed six scoreless innings, priming himself to become one of the stars of the Cape League summer. A case of mono kept him off the mount until July 7, though, and he only wound up pitching 22.1 innings.

This spring, Newcomb started Hartford’s first game of the 2014 college baseball season, but this time, he’s been on the mound every week since – and with a lot to show for it. Stardom has arrived.

Newcomb leads the nation with a 0.00 ERA. He’s 3-1 in six starts and has allowed just a single unearned run in 39.2 innings. He’s struck out 46 and while his walk total is a bit high at 19, he’s made up for it by allowing only 14 hits. Opponents are batting .111 against him.

Even before his torrid start, Newcomb was drawing plenty of attention. He lit up radar guns at Hartford’s scout day in the fall.

The 6’5 lefty is a native of Middleboro, Mass., which also produced Cape League star Tyler Horan, one of the leaders of Wareham’s 2013 title run.

  • Three years ago, Kyle Zimmer rode a strong season with Cotuit into a tremendous junior season at San Francisco and, ultimately, a spot in the Major League draft’s first round. His younger brother is on the same path so far. Bradley Zimmer won Playoff MVP honors as Cotuit won the Cape League championship last year, and now the junior outfielder is cementing himself as one of the nation’s best hitters. The San Francisco junior ranks in the top 20 nationally in batting average with a .430 mark. He’s also hit six home runs and driven in 20, both tops on his team. In some early projections by Baseball America, Zimmer was tabbed as a likely first-round pick and ranked as the second-best college hitter in the draft.

  • The other guy who left Cape Cod as an MVP is off to a solid start of his own. Max Pentecost, the league MVP with Bourne, is hitting .303 with three homers for Kennesaw State and should be one of the top available catchers in the June draft.

  • In case you missed the news from earlier this month, the 2014 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game has been moved from Saturday, July 26 to Sunday, July 27. Bourne’s Doran Park will host the game, and the original Saturday date would have conflicted with Bourne’s celebration of the Cape Cod Canal’s 100th anniversary.

  • Every Cape League team has now posted its 2014 roster. As you watch the college baseball season unfold, your most Cape League-heavy team is powerhouse LSU. The Tigers have 12 players on Cape rosters, spread across six different teams. Sophomore Alex Bregman, a likely first-round pick in 2015, is the leader of the crew. He’s on the Harwich roster, as he was last summer before he ended up with Team USA. Bregman is hitting .291 this year, perhaps a mild sophomore slump after his huge freshman season.

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    Tigers vs. Tigers

    Before this season, a match-up between LSU and Missouri would have been a nice non-conference tilt. Now, with Mizzou moving into the Southeastern Conference, it’s got a little extra meaning. Missouri hasn’t quite put it together this season – with a 9-12 record – but they’re at home and will have a chance to make a splash with No. 4 LSU coming to town.

    Schedule
    Friday, 7 p.m.
    Saturday, 2 p.m.
    Sunday, 2 p.m.

    2013 Cape Leaguers
    LSU
    Alex Bregman – INF – Harwich
    Kurt McCune – RHP – Wareham
    Christopher Chinea – 1B – Wareham
    Sean McMullen – OF – Wareham

    Missouri
    Alec Rash – RHP – Falmouth

    Notable
    The next ace
    With only one Cape Leaguer on its roster, Missouri isn’t exactly a team to watch from a CCBL perspective. But that one player is certainly worth watching. Freshman pitcher Alec Rash, a 6’6 righty, was the highest-selected high school player to head to college out of last year’s draft. He was a second round pick of the Phillies. Pitching on Sundays, he has been as good as advertised for the Tigers, leading the team in ERA at 0.53. He has stuck out 17 in 17 innings. The one earned run he gave up against Tennessee last weekend was the first he’s allowed in his career. It’ll be interesting to see how he performs against one of the nation’s best teams.

    Explosive start
    I wrote about Alex Bregman yesterday but I’ll mention him again here. The freshman shortstop is leading the team with a .443 batting average and looking like one of the top players in the country.

    Waiting Game
    Kurt McCune, who’s working his way back from injury, is expected to make his season debut in early April. He’s a former Friday starter for the Tigers.

    Run Producer
    Mason Katz had two pretty solid summers with Yarmouth-Dennis. Now the LSU senior is emerging as a star. He’s hitting .396 so far with 10 home runs, and he’s the national leader in RBI with 41.

    Time to Shine
    Fresh off the 2011 Cape League Pitcher of the Year award, LSU’s Ryan Eades wasn’t dominant last year. This year, he’s right back on track. Eades is 5-0 with a 1.63 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 38.2 innings.

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    Bregman Setting the Pace for LSU

    With LSU sitting at 23-2 and ranked in the top five, you’d think one of the team’s veterans would be its leading hitter. Someone like Mason Katz, or – I don’t know – Raph Rhymes, that guy who almost hit .500 last spring.

    Katz and Rhymes are certainly doing well, but nobody’s been better than freshman shortstop Alex Bregman, who is on the Harwich roster for this summer.

    Bregman is hitting .443, best on the team and good for 21st in the nation. He’s also hit two homers, two triples and eight doubles, while driving in 23 runs. His on-base percentage is a team-best .496 and he’s slugging .613.

    He’s doing all of this, of course, while starting at shortstop and anchoring the middle of the order for perhaps the most storied program in college baseball. And he’s replacing Austin Nola, a four-year starter who was beloved by the Tiger Faithful.

    Bregman has thrived all the same. He was a 29th-round pick of the Red Sox out of high school in New Mexico last year, and he’s living up to every bit of the hype.

    It’s also worth noting, from a Cape League perspective, that Bregman is slated to join North Carolina star freshman Skye Bolt in Harwich. Bolt is hitting above .400 as well. A third Harwich freshman, Texas infielder C.J. Hinojosa was a 26th-round pick out of high school and is rated as one of the top freshmen in the nation. Quite a trio.