10 August 2006

Playoffs reflect tight pennant races

If the regular season is an indicator of how the Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs will be played, fans can expect close games, great pitching, dramatic finishes and just good solid baseball.

But while the playoffs followed that part of the script, both division champions suffered opening-game defeats Tuesday.

Yarmouth-Dennis, which handily won the East by six points over Brewster, dropped a 4-2 13-inning marathon to the Whitecaps and had its back to the wall going into yesterday's second game of the best-of-3 series (after The Register's deadline).

And Cotuit, which won by the same margin over Wareham in the West, dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker and was to face the Gatemen last night at Clem Spillane Field.

The Red Sox struggled early in the season, wallowing for a while in last place, struggling to get to .500 at mid-season and then putting on a spectacular performance in July to capture the division title.

Meanwhile, the other four East teams scrambled for a playoff berth with Brewster finally clinching it on the next-to-last day of the regular season.

Red Sox field manager Scott Pickler has seen a lot of close races in his time in the Cape League, but says this year the East Division race was particularly tough.

"It's always pretty even. Every year it gets pretty close, but when five teams win more than 20 games, that's a pretty good division," says Pickler. "It's always pretty close, but I don't think I've seen it when all the teams had 20 wins."

In the West, Cotuit held onto first place for practically the entire season, with the Wareham Gatemen, Falmouth Commodores and even the Hyannis Mets, for a while, fighting for second place.

Wareham finally pulled away, finishing four points ahead of the third-place Commodores.

Y-D gains edge, but ...

In what might have been a preview of the championship series, Yarmouth-Dennis and Cotuit squared off in the season finale with the Red Sox scoring twice in the bottom of the eighth inning to win it.

The Red Sox captured the momentum going into the playoffs, setting a Cape League record for wins in July and going 17-5 in the second half of the season to record the best record in the league at 28-16 with 56 points.

The win over Cotuit secured home-field advantage for the Red Sox throughout the playoffs. Cotuit finished 27-16-1 with 55 points.

Going into the playoffs with a loss and potentially losing the home-field advantage in the championship series didn't faze Cotuit manager Dave Roberts.

"It [the season finale loss to Y-D] was just one of 44. The playoffs is just the 45th game. We'll play it like we did the first and the 33rd," says Roberts. "We like to play on the road; we like to play at home. To be a good team you've got to play in both places well."

Similarly Pickler did not place too much emphasis on a "championship series preview" game either.

"It's not as important as Tuesday; that's all I'm worried about. Brewster is very good," says Pickler. "They can hit and they can run. They have a good combination of hitting and defense." His concern was merited.

The Red Sox countered with their own balanced attack of hitting and pitching.

Buster Posey 
Florida State) led the team in hits (second in the league) with 46 and had a .291 batting average.

In only 28 games, Tyler Henley (Rice) hit seven home runs and drove in 18 runs.

Brad Emaus (Tulane), Alden Carrithers (Cal-Santa Barbara) and Steve Strausbaugh (Western Carolina) all improved their hitting through the season as the Red Sox climbed from next-to-last in team batting to fourth place in the league.

Terry Doyle of Boston College, who went 5-1 in the regular season and pitched a no-hitter, is one of several top-notch Red Sox pitchers. He shared Co-Pitcher of the Year honors with Brewster's Shaun Seibert.

And with Josh Fields from Georgia, who recorded a league best 13 saves in only 16 appearances and was named the league's best reliever, the Red Sox will be tough to beat if they have a lead in the late innings.

Smoak, Roberts gain honors

Cotuit also expects a good series from Wareham.

"They're well coached. They have a tremendous championship tradition," says Roberts. "They're tough to get out; the whole lineup is tough."

Cotuit has been pretty tough to get out all year as well with Eric Farris (Loyola Marymount) Sean Gaston (Notre Dame) and Justin Smoak (South Carolina) leading the way in hitting. Smoak was the league MVP.

Farris led the team with a .298 batting average and 18 RBI, while Smoak led the league in home runs with 11 and drove in 27 runs.

Christian Staehely from Princeton led the pitching staff in wins with a 5-2 record while James Simmons of UC-Riverside led the team with a 1.18 ERA and compiled a 4-2 record.

Roberts, named Manager of the Year, expected the playoffs to be dominated by pitching.

"Every team has several good pitchers," he says. "Every playoff game will be a pitcher's duel."

Y-D's Pickler agrees to a point, but emphasizes that as the season progresses, the hitting catches up with the pitching. His Red Sox did just that during the season.

"It's all about making adjustments. Eamus, Carrithers, Strausbaugh, they all made the adjustments," Pickler says.

But then, again, it is the playoffs and in the playoffs you can expect just about anything. But one thing you can probably count on is good solid baseball.

By George Kostinas