July 31, 2008

Cape Cod League
With just one week left in the regular season on the Cape, Kevin Patterson enjoyed the league-wide day off on Wednesday by heading to Fenway Park to participate in the Cape Cod League All-Star Player Recognition Night ... Patterson, who was the starting DH for the West, went 0-for-3 with a walk in the All-Star Game last Saturday in Chatham, Mass. ... The West lost to the East, 8-6, as the East scored seven runs in the bottom of the eighth ... Heading into the final week of the summer season, Patterson is hitting .288 with six doubles, two triples and three home runs, driving in a team-best 24 RBI ... His .424 slugging percentage is currently the highest of any player still playing for Cotuit and is third overall for the Cotuit squad this summer ... Auburn teammate Joseph Sanders checks in with a .260 batting average and has stroked 14 extra-base hits so far (10 doubles, four homers) ... Sanders' 14 extra-base hits ranks fifth in the league while his 16 RBI are the most for a Harwich squad that is 19-18 this summer and second in the East ... Brian Fletcher, who got a late start at in the Cape after trying out for the USA Baseball National Team, has struggled, collecting just a .163 batting average with six doubles, a triple and a homer, but the sophomore-to-be has had little time off to rest after a grueling freshman season at Auburn in which he played in 54 out of 56 games ... Fletcher and Falmouth currently lead the Western Division with a 20-15 record while Patterson and Cotuit are 17-17 and in third in the West.

Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League
It is playoff time in the Cal Ripken, Sr. CBL and Ben Jones and the Bethesda Big Train wrapped up the No. 2 overall seed after going 29-13 in the summer season ... Jones hit .228 during the year with four doubles, a triple and two home runs, driving in 11 and scoring 14 runs ... Bethesda lost its opening-round playoff game on Wednesday afternoon but stayed alive with a 7-4 victory that night ... The Big Train will play the College Park Bombers on Thursday to try and keep its season going.

Coastal Plain League
The Peninsula Pilots went 5-2 over the last week to move to 29-22 on the summer and 15-8 in the second half, which puts them in first in the North for the second half ... Sean Ray threw twice over the last week, making a one-inning relief appearance on Saturday in which he allowed a run before earning the start in the first game of a double header on Tuesday, lasting six innings and allowing three runs (one earned) while striking out six ... For the summer Sean is now 0-2 with a 5.27 ERA, striking out 17 in 13.2 innings ... the CPL has one week left in its regular season, with the final games being played on Aug. 5 and the Petitt Cup being held the 7th-9th.

Florida Collegiate League
Tony Caldwell and the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs will play a play-in game for the Florida Collegiate League Playoffs tonight at 6pm CT as Winter Park grabbed the fourth-best record in the regular season, thanks in no small part to Caldwell's .286 batting average ... In 91 at bats, Caldwell has collected a team-high eight doubles, two triples, a homers and 16 RBI ... It was recently brought to my attention that Scott Shuman is with the Orlando Sun in the FSCL ... Shuman has made four starts for Orlando and is 2-0 with a 2.38 ERA in 22.2 innings, striking out 21 against just seven walks ... Orlando is the team that Caldwell and Winter Park will play tonight in the play-in game ... Also need to make note of the fact that Caldwell was the starting catcher in the FCSL All-Star game, going 1-for-1 with a walk while Shuman was also on the roster for the East, which fell 4-1 ... The league championship game will be played in Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, home of the MLB Rays, on Aug. 6 following a Rays-Indians afternoon contest.

Clark Griffith League
The CGL is deep into the playoffs, having played three rounds already ... The Fairfax Nationals, which is the team that both Chris O'Neil and Rus Harper play for, captured the No. 2 seed for the playoffs and are undefeated in the playoffs thus far, advancing to tonight's championship game, which will be played at 6:15 pm CT ... Neither pitcher has thrown in the playoffs yet ... For the season, O'Neil is 2-1 with a 2.92 ERA in 24.2 innings, appearing in nine games (two starts) while Harper is 2-2 with a 5.34 ERA in 30.1 innings, making nine appearances (five starts) and striking out 28.

New England Collegiate League
The NECBL has one week left in its regular season before playoffs start next Saturday ... David Cunningham and the Newport Gulls are on pace to qualify for the playoffs as they are leading the Southern Division with a 25-16 record ... Cunningham has hit .256 in 39 at bats for Newport.

Valley League
On Tuesday, Jon Luke Jacobs was named the VBL Pitcher of the Week ... From the official release, "The left-handed pitcher from Auburn was 1-0 last week with three appearances. Jacobs recorded an impressive 17 strikeouts, two saves and a combined shutout last week. The Auburn Tiger allowed only three hits out of 30 at bats, which gave him a .100 opponent batting average. Jacobs also had zero earned runs scored against him. In the league, Jacobs was tied for first in ERA with 0.00, third in opponent batting average, first in strikeouts and second in saves. For the season, Jacobs has a record of 4-1 with a 1.10 ERA, two saves, five earned runs, an opponent batting average of .179 and leads his team in strikeouts with 68." ... In other VBL news, the league playoffs also began on Tuesday with Jacobs, teammate Austin Hubbard and Fauquier clinching the No. 3 seed while Trent Mummey and Bradley Hendrix helped Winchester to the No. 4 seed ... Fauquier lost its opening round game, 9-1, while Winchster won, 8-3 ... Hubbard enters the playoffs 0-1 with a 1.74 ERA in 20.2 innings for Fauquier while Hendrix is 0-0 with a 1.76 ERA in five appearances ... Mummey is hitting .238 ... Bradley Ray's Front Royal team did not make the playoffs, finishing the summer 12-32 ... Ray hit .232 in 125 summer at bats, driving in 11 and scoring 15 runs, collecting a .377 on-base percentage.

Sunbelt League
The Sunbelt season came to a close last weekend with Ty Kelley finishing the year with a 4-2 mark to go along with a 1.74 ERA in 31 innings ... He also picked up two saves and fanned 31 against a miniscule six walks and six earned runs ... Ty was called on to pitch the third round elimination game in the playoffs on Saturday afternoon and came through with a complete-game victory as Norcross won 10-2 ... However, Norcross' season ended that night with a 2-1 loss ... Special thanks to Reggie Kelley for all the updates on Ty this summer.

USA Baseball
Hunter Morris drove in the winning run in the 12th-inning in the FISU World Championships as the USA Baseball National Team completed an undefeated run over the summer, finishing the year 24-0 ... From the USA Baseball press release following the final game,
"Morris, who made the team following his true-freshman season, had the game-winning hit in two of Team USA's final three victories. (He had a walk-off home run against Chinese Taipei in the final pool-play game on Thursday.)
"Look at what Morris did these last few games," Campbell said. "He hasn't gotten too many at bats since [Jared] Clark joined this team; he had mostly been shaking hands in the dugout. But he got the game-winning RBI in two of our last three games. I'm so happy that Hunter was the guy. It means even more when you consider the circumstances that allowed him to be on this team."
"It was such a great feeling when I saw that ball drop because I knew Gibbs was going to score," Morris said. "With Kendal coming into the game and the way our pitching has been all summer, I knew it would be enough."
Morris finished the summer hitting .270 with a double, three homers and nine RBI in just 37 at bats.

auburntigers.com is once again following the student-athletes around the nation this summer. If someone is missing from the list, please contact Dan Froehlich at froehdp@auburn.edu