July 30, 2012
Jon Cooper, Sting Daily –
As the summer leagues wind down, Georgia Tech players gear up for their playoff drives.
Here is a look at how the Yellow Jackets did in their various leagues in games from Monday, July 23, through Sunday, July 29.
Cape Cod Baseball League
Sam Dove, OF/3B, Harwich Mariners – Dove went 1-for-8 (.125) with a run scored but the one hit and the one run both proved big. He scored the final run of a four-run seventh inning — it proved to be the winning run in 7-5 win over Orleans. On Friday, his ninth-inning single drove in a key insurance run in the 3-1 win over Falmouth-Dennis. Dove is hitting .212 on the season, but has a .326 on-base percentage and is second on the team with 19 runs scored.
Zane Evans, C/RHP, Harwich Mariners – Evans did not see action this week.
Mott Hyde, SS, Wareham Gatemen – Hyde’s rough week, 1-for-19 (.053) at the plate and his first caught-stealing of the summer in nine tries — can be tempered by his appearance in the Cape Cod League All-Star Game, representing the West All-Stars. He went 0-for-2 in the game, which ended in a 1-1 tie. Hyde will look to snap an 0-for-12 streak that he carries into the week. He is still batting a solid .289, with a .438 slugging percentage and a team-high eight stolen bases.
Dusty Isaacs, RHP, Cotuit Kettleers – Isaacs had one of his best outings of the year, throwing a summer-high 6 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits, while striking out nine, without walking a batter. Unfortunately, he would get no decision as he entered with two out in the fourth inning and would leave after the 10th in a 14-inning marathon against the Hyannis Harbor Hawks. Cotuit would win, 6-3. Issac’s ERA dropped to 1.59. In 22 2/3 innings. He’s allowed only 12 hits, striking out 25 while walking only four.
Daniel Palka, 1B/LHP/OF, Wareham Gatemen – Palka had another strong week, although his average doesn’t necessarily reflect it. He batted . 238 (5-for-21), hitting in all but one of the team’s five games and saved his best for last, earning MVP honors in Saturday’s Cape Cod League All-Star Game, going 3-for-4. He is hitting .281 on the season, with 10 homers and 32 RBIs, with five doubles, a .555 slugging percentage and a .916 OPS.
Cole Pitts, RHP, Harwich Mariners – Pitts did not pitch this week.
NOTE: Harwich is 22-13 and stays in first place in the East after a 2-1 week. They earned wins over second-place Orleans and third-place Yarmouth-Dennis, yet ended the week with their worst loss of the season, 9-0 at the hands of Western Division cellar-dwellar Bourn. The Mariners lead the division by a game over Orleans and by 3.5 over Yarmouth-Dennis.
In the West, Cotuit went 5-0 extending its winning streak to eight, including scoring a team-high 16-runs on Thursday at Wareham. The Kettleers lead the West with its 23-12 record, 6 1/2 games ahead of the Falmouth Commodores. Wareham, went 3-2 and sits in third, seven games off the pace at 16-19.
Valley League
Alex Cruz, RHP, Harrisonburg Turks – Alex’s sole appearance of the week came on Tuesday night, a 9-2 loss to Stauton. He pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs, both earned. He struck out three and didn’t walk a batter, the only pitcher of the five in the game for either team not to issue a free pass.
A.J. Murray, C, Harrisonburg Turks – The freshman catcher was 3-for-8 for the week, including a multi-hit game on Monday in the 11-4 win over Waynesboro. His single started the seven-run third inning. Murry did not play the final three games of the week.
Charles Sheffield, OF/1B, Harrisonburg Turks – Sheffield batted .230 (3-for-13), but was pesky, drawing four walks, one in each of the last four games of the week, and scoring two runs. In Monday’s 11-4 win over Waynesboro, he had his second triple of the summer, part of the seven-run third inning.
Thomas Smith, 2B, Harrisonburg Turks – Smith had only three hits for the week — he batted .200 (3-for-15), but reached base three other times with walks. He scored two runs had an RBI, his 16th of the summer, and a stolen base. He’s batting .286 for this summer and is now 2-for-3 in stolen base attempts.
NOTE: The Turks ended the week at 29-17 in second place, 4 1/2 games behind the Waynesboro Generals in the South Division following a 3-2 week.
New England Collegiate Baseball League
Paul Kronenfeld, OF/1B, Sanford Mariners – Kronenfeld had a nice week at the plate, with eight hits in 28 at-bats, a .286 average. He also homered in back-to-back games on July 27 in both ends of the double-header at Mystic. Kronenfeld, who began the week with back-to-back hitless games, ensured that he would not have his first three-game hitless streak of the summer, as he hit in both games of the July 23rd doubleheader against Mystic. He’d get hits in seven of Sanford’s eight games. He also was four-for-four in stolen base attempts, doubling his stolen bases for the summer. He has yet to be caught.
Daniel Spingola, OF, Danbury Westerners – Spingola continued to swing a hot bat, hitting in all three of Danbury’s games and batting .333 for the week(4-for-12). He also had a pair of doubles, giving him 10 for this summer and scored four runs, at least one in each game. Spingola has pushed his average to .308, while his 28 runs scored and 10 doubles both rank second on the team.
NOTE: Danbury went 3-0 (two games were cancelled) and have won six straight, but even at 22-15, the Westerners remain 3 1/2 games behind the Keene Swamp Bats.
Sanford went 3-5 on the week, but rolled it up in its two wins, scoring 16 and 17 runs. They sit in fourth place in the Eastern Division at 14-24, 14 1/2 games off the pace.
Coastal Plain League
Cameron Gibson, OF/RHP, Peninsula Pilots – The freshman outfielder batted .273 for the week (6-for-22), with three runs scored and six runs driven in. His highlight of the week came July 25th at Wilson, where he went 4-for-5, with an RBI double in the seventh and a run scored in the eighth. He was central to Peninsula’s rally from an 8-3 deficit after seven in the 12-8 victory.
Josh Heddinger, RHP, Peninsula Pilots – Heddinger had a rare rough outing, starting the July 25th game facing only three hitters and lasting just 1/3 of an inning. He allowed two runs, both earned, and two hits — one of them an infield hit — as Wilson jumped out to a 4-0 lead. He did not get a decision once the Pilots stormed back over the final three innings to win the game.
Jonathan Roberts, RHP, Peninsula Pilots – Roberts did not see action in any games this past week.
NOTE: Peninsula had a 5-1 week, to raise its record to is 13-11 in the second half. The Pilots are in fourth in the East, three games back of Edenton.
Northwoods League
Connor Lynch, C, Lakeshore Chinooks – Lynch played in two of Lakeshore’s four games this week, going 0-for-7 at the plate, but atoned defensively, as he gunned out an opposing base-stealer in each game.
NOTE: Lakeshore went 2-2 and stands at 11-10 in the second half. They are in fourth place in the South Division, eight games back of the first place Wisconsin Woodchucks.
Sunbelt Baseball League
DeAndre Smelter, P/OF, Douglasville Bulls – Smelter finished the regular season on a bit of a skid, going 1-for-7. But the hit was a big one, a two-run double, as part of a decisive four-run fifth-inning rally in the Bulls’ 11-4 win over the Home Plate Chukars. Smelter finished the season with a .314 average, a .529 slugging percentage and a .955 OPS. He went 0-for-4 in the Bulls’ first-round playoff matchup with the 6-4-3 Cougars on Saturday, but Douglasville still advanced, 3-1.
NOTE: Douglasville finished 19-9 in the west, winning the division by 2 1/2 games.
