9 July, 2004

Clippings from around the Cape League

News and highlights. Read about all the action from the diamond

Near no-no for Falmouth's Connolly

Falmouth's P.J. Connolly got his first start of the year and pitched eight and two thirds innings of hitless ball in Chatham Wednesday night before giving up a single to Travis Storrer. His line drive down the right field line was trapped. Third baseman Matt Antonelli made a spectacular over the shoulder diving catch on a pop-up by Steve Head to save the no-hitter on the previous play.

"Everything was working well," said Connolly. "I had control of my fastball, change-up and slider. I felt good. I was able to keep them off balance."

Connolly had only worked two thirds of an inning prior to Wednesday. He's a big left hander out of East Carolina. He's from Beloit Wisconsin.

"The big thing is we won the game (6-0). This is a big win for us," Connolly said. "He (Antonelli) made three great plays behind me. Things like that you need to fall in place for a no-hitter. I haven't gone this long in a long time. In the seventh inning they recorded my 100th pitch and coach said you tell me when you're ready to come out."

He came out after Storrer's hit and John Defendis followed with a single. Connolly's line for the day was 8.2 innings, one hit, three walks and four strikeouts.

He's a starter and reliever at East Carolina.

Connolly was tiring and Storrer took advantage to break up his no hit bid and save the A's honor.

"It was a fastball," he said. "He missed with a curveball in the dirt on the first pitch and I knew he'd be throwing the fastball so I could cheat a little bit. He ran it in, he'd been running it in all day, and I got enough wood on it to get it out there. He was locating the ball well all day, moving the fastball in and out, and keeping us off balance with the change-up."

Storrer is from Clemson. He's hitting .194 this year but he's second on the team in hits with 13. The A's as a team are batting just .178.

"His curveball was coming in on you too, he's a lefthander, and that's tough," Storrer noted. "We do a lot of batting practice and that'll help. I love it up here.:

"From a fans' standpoint this was a great effort," noted A's manager John Schiffner. "He (Antonelli) sold out for his pitcher and that's great. We didn't get no-hit and we followed that with another hit. We've had pitchers dominate us before and we've come back. The kids know this is a good league and you'll see a lot of good pitchers. We're not in panic mode."

John Slone selected Coca-Cola Player of the Week

The Harwich Mariners' John Slone, who attends Miami University, was named the Coca-Cola Player of the Week after hitting .478 in five games. The right-handed hitting catcher, who's a native of Cincinnati, had 11 hits in 23 at bats, scored four runs, drove in three and had two doubles. In the Mariners 10-1 win over Brewster on June 28, he was three-for-four with three RBIs. He scored the winning run in the 2-1 win over Bourne on the 30th as he scored from second on a wild pitch.

So far this season Slone is batting .280 with 14 hits in 50 at bats with two doubles and five runs and RBI's. He's also stolen three bases which is pretty good for a catcher.

Brewster stays hot

Brewster got off to a great start with 13 temporary players in the line-up. Now they're mostly gone but at 12-6 the Whitecaps are still doing great. Ryan Roberson (2-10-.293) is one temp who be here for the full season. Another is J.B. Tucker.

The Whitecaps had 34 consecutive scoreless innings of work out of their pitching staff, up until Monday. The key pitchers involved were Adam Gold (seven innings in 2-1 win over Harwich Monday), Josh Cribb (six innings) and Ryan Falcon (three innings) in 3-0 win over Chatham, Matt Avery (five innings) and Jason Determann (three innings) in 1-0 win over Wareham and Matt Goyen (nine innings in Orleans June 30). The streak began during Brewster's 3-1 loss to Chatham June 29.

Mike Campbell drove in the winner with a double in the 10th inning as Brewster beat Cotuit 6-3 Tuesday. He's hitting .429 (6 for 14) since arriving.

The Whitecaps are still awaiting Cesar Crespo, who took a week off after the College World Series.

Josh Cribbs is 3-0 and has yet to give up an earned run in 21 innings.

Ryan Patterson had four hits in Wednesday's 7-4 win, including a homer.

A's Getz gets an A so far

Chris Getz of the Chatham A's is back for his second summer on Cape Cod and experience has paid off.

Getz is batting .316, the best average on the team, with 12 hits in 38 at bats. He's scored a team high eight runs. Last year he hit .206 with 20 hits in 110 at bats so he's off to a better start.

"I knew what to expect," he said. "That's an advantage dealing with failure here because there is a lot of failure when you start off and you learn how to approach it. It's helped me out so far, plus I'm a year older."

Getz plays at the University of Michigan. He's the A's second baseman.

"I had a pretty good year at Michigan, I hit about .360," he noted. "I did enjoy myself last year and it's hard after playing in this league to go anywhere else. So when the opportunity came to come back I didn't have any problem agreeing to it."

His goal is to get better.

"I hope to improve from last season, I didn't set any numerical goals. I just want to have better at bats," Getz said. "This is not just baseball here. It's beaches, you meet a lot of good kids and quality ballplayers. A lot of these guys will end up in pro ball. I think it's everyone's goal to get there."

Getz hopes to play pro ball as well. 

"He's been doing very well for us," said coach John Schiffner. "Having a little experience he knows what he's going to see."

Mariners doing good work

Some of the Harwich Mariners who are off to a good start, beside John Slone, include Jon Aughey who is batting .270 with 10 hits in 37 at bats and nine runs scored.

Drew Davidson was batting .300 with 12 hits in 40 at bats while Brent Lillibridge leads the Mariners with three homers in 53 at bats.

Dan Brauer has been the ace of the staff at 3-0. He sports a 1.00 ERA in 18 innings of work. He's whiffed 27.

Craig Hanson has pitched 9.2 shutout frames in nine games so far. Ryan LaMotta has a 2.20 ERA in 16 innings. Kevin Lynch has six shutout innings to his credit. Tim Sabo has a 2.95 ERA in 18 innings although he is 0-2. Anthony Varvaro has a 1.04 ERA in 26 innings and is 2-1 while Zach Ward is 1.35 in 13 frames.

Harwich as a team has a 2.43 ERA but they're hitting .209 as a team.

St. John's teammates Anthony Varvaro (8 innings) and Craig Hansen (1) combined to pitch a 3-1 Mariners victory over Hyannis Wednesday.

Cards carry-on

The Orleans Cardinals have struggled to a 7-10 start. They've hit only .181 as a team but the batting should pick up. Jordan Brown is at .357 (10 for 28) and Tyler Greene is hitting .333 (8 for 24).

The Cards have only two homers this year.

Orleans got just four hits vs. Chatham on Monday but won 2-1 as Chris Nicoll and Ryan Self held the A's to five hits. Nicoll is 3-0 and has a 2.33 ERA in 19 innings. Self has an 0.64 ERA in 14 innings.

The Cardinals got four hits vs. Chatham a day earlier as well but lost 3-2.

Charles Beloit has pitched well for them, 1-0 with a 1.38 ERA as has Romas Hicks (1.74 ERA in 10 innings). Hicks made the Cardinals at the pre-season tryouts.