This Week in Baseball

Orleans Proves Too Much to Handle for Y-D
Wareham Comes Out Swinging to Take the West

ORLEANS -- You don't earn Cape Cod Baseball League Manager of the Year honors
for keen promotional ideas or for wading through the vast and continuous crowd at Eldredge Park each night, selling 50-50 tickets.

2002 Cape Cod Baseball League Manager of the Year Carmen Carcone (Dowling) focuses on victory and getting his Orleans Cardinals into the CCBL Championship series. Wareham heads to Orleans tonight at 7 p.m. for Game 1 of the Championship Series.
Sean Walsh/CCBL 2002

You earn it by posting a brilliant 29-13-2 regular season record and then taking an extraordinarily tough-to-beat Y-D Red Sox team two-games-to-one in the Eastern Division playoffs. Backed by solo home runs from Mike Rapacioli (St. Bonaventure) and Steve Garrabrants (Arizona State), and the brilliant pitching of Baylor’s Steven White (4-0, 1.60 ERA in the regular season), Manager of the Year Carmen Carcone’s Cardinals ousted the visiting Red Sox last night in a 3-1 affair. White struck out 12 batters and allowed just two hits and walked four. He gave up one run, a solo homer by UCLA’s Wes Whisler. UNLV’s Robbie Van provided middle relief and Whitley Benson (UNC-Chapel Hill) closed in the ninth. Benson, who ran into a jam with two men on after a pair of errors, finished the job for the save with a 1-6-3 double play.

The Cards rode the complete-game effort of Scott Baker (Oklahoma State) in game two (Friday, Aug. 9) and had fallen to Y-D at home on Aug. 8, 7-1. The Red Birds can now lay claim to the 2002 Eastern Division Regular Season title and the 2002 Eastern Division Champions title.

Y-D looked to Texas A&M’s Matt Farnum to stave off the Cardinals last night, but two solo shots off the hard-throwing right-hander, eventually forced Red Sox Field Manager Scott Pickler to bring in Mike Rogers from NC State to finish the game in the sixth. Farnum took the hard-luck loss.

At Elizabeth Lowell Park, though, it was a different story as the bats for Wareham came alive early and often. With the Western Division Playoffs even at 1-1 and Cotuit riding the high of a 3-2, 12-inning win the night before at Wareham, the Kettleers went with UNLV’s Ryan Braun, a right-hander who transferred from Wake Forest and who 2-2 with a 1.53 ERA this summer. Wareham’s Tim Moss (Texas) led the game off with a walk, followed by a Matt Rogelstad (Southeast Louisiana) bloop single to right. Matt Murton singled to load the bases and with no outs and bases loaded, Baylor’s Dave Murphy knocked in a run. Brown’s Matt Kutler then stepped in and took a belt-high Braun fastball and sent it soaring high into the right-field trees to make it 5-0 after the top of the first.

Matt Kutler rips a two-run triple for Wareham and picks up two more RBI on the day in an 11-6 series-deciding win at Lowell Park.
Sean Walsh/CCBL 2002

But Cotuit knew it had nine innings to go and lead-off man Tony Giarratano (Tulane) hammered a left-center double to get things rolling, just one night after belting the game-winning home run in the 12th versus Wareham. Stetson’s Brian Snyder, who went 3-5 on the day with four (4) RBI, muscled one up the middle off Wareham starter Rory Shortell (San Diego State) to make it 5-1. But Cotuit’s rally fizzled and Wareham later added two more runs on a Kutler triple to right centerfield that just barely scooted under the mitt of Alabama’s Pete Stonard. The two runs came off reliever Garry Bakker (UNC).

While Cotuit would eventually cut things to 7-5 with the help of a Snyder three-run opposite field blast in the bottom of the fifth, Wareham outlasted the Kettleers and eventually won 11-6. Robbie Ransom (Vanderbilt) and Brian Burks (Georgia Tech) closed things out for Shortell, while Joe Little eventually finished the game for Cotuit. The Kettleers claimed the 2002 Western Division Regular Season title, while Wareham captured the Western Division Playoffs Championship crown.

Kutler went 3-5 with a triple, grand slam and six (6) RBI for Wareham. Shortell allowed five runs (four unearned), went 5.2 innings, walked one and struck out three. Braun, who went into the outfield after being relieved, went 2-3 at the plate and scored a run.

Wareham will give Georgia Tech’s Kevin Guyette the nod in tonight’s game at Orleans, while Orleans’ starter was yet made available to the public.

Orleans first baseman Mike Rapacioli and Y-D first baseman Wes Whisler, seen here in game two of the East playoffs, both hit solo home runs in game three. The Cardinals won 3-1 and head to the title series versus Wareham tonight at Eldredge Park.
Sean Walsh/CCBL 2002

Wareham's Chris Durbin (Baylor) lofts one high but playable in game three of the Western Division Playoffs at Lowell Park.
Sean Walsh/CCBL 2002

Cotuit's Brian Snyder (Stetson) rips a single and collects his first of four RBI on the day, but to no avail in an 11-6 loss to Wareham in game three of the Western Division Playoffs yesterday at Lowell Park.
Sean Walsh/CCBL 2002

Gatemen first baseman Josh Ford (Baylor) charges home plate on a bunt attempt as Cotuit's Eric Nielsen (UNLV) takes off for second base.
Sean Walsh/CCBL 2002

Myron Leslie and Dave Coffey celebrate an important run for the Cardinals in their 2-1 win over Y-D in game two of the Eastern Division Playoffs.
Sean Walsh/CCBL 2002

Y-D catcher John Slone (Miami-Ohio) chass down a foul pop in game two of the Eastern Division Playoffs at Red Wilson Field.
Sean Walsh/CCBL 2002