WINTER HAVEN, FL – At no time in recent memory has Cape Cod’s cache of former high school baseball players been so well-represented in the collegiate baseball ranks.
As of the beginning of this week, no less than 50 former Cape High School baseball players were listed on current collegiate baseball rosters at every level – D1, DII and DII – and all are currently playing except for one red-shirted player who had been pegged for a starting outfield role in the fall but suffered a season- but not career-ending injury.
Barnstable High School and Barnstable Post 206 alum George Bent is in the midst of his collegiate pitching career for the UMass-Dartmouth Corsairs. Bent notchedh is first win of this spring last Friday in Winter Haven, Florida.
Photo courtesy of UMD Athletics
Former District 10 American Legion Pitcher of the Year and Barnstable High/Barnstable Post 206 alum George Bent picked up his first win of the 2015 campaign for the UMass-Darmouth Corsairs last weekend.
A junior right-hander for the Corsairs, Bent (Centerville) notched the win on Friday (March 20) in Winter Haven, Florida against Western New England College in a 13-9 affair. It was the final game of the Corsairs’ spring trip down south, as UMass-Dartmouth finished at 5-3 before heading back north.
Bent allowed two earned runs on five hits over the course of five innings. The junior right-hander struck out a season-high seven batters and issued one walk on 101 total pitches.
Bent helped lead Barnstable Post 206 American Legion to back-to-back Massachusetts State Championship titles in 2012 and 2013. Bent is currently leading the UMass-Darmouth pitching staff in ERA (6.23), strikeouts (9) and wins (tied-1). He is 1-1 with three apperances thus far this spring. He is the son of George and Kathy Bent of Centerville.
Westfield State righty Pete Liimatainen — another Barnstable High/Barnstable Post 206 alum — also boasted a 1-0 record and has a 1.17 earned run average at the beginning of this week. A junior with five appearances out of the bullpen this season, Liimatainen also helped pitch Post 206 to back-to-back state titles in 2012 and 2013. He is the son of Dave and Diane Liimatainen of West Barnstable and Dave also was a collegiate pitcher and Barnstable High alum.
UConn junior first baseman Bob Melley, the 2014 NEIBA Division-I New England Player of the Year, is currently hitting .267 for the 15-8 Huskies with 9 RBI and 23 hits. A former Team Cape Cod player, Melley played for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks last summer. As a boy, Centerville’s Melley was one of the official bat boys
UConn’s Bobby Melley, a Centerville native and BC High alum, was named the 2014 New England Collegiate Player of the Year last spring.
Photo by Stephen Slade/courtesy of UConn Athletics
for the Harbor Hawks’ Cape League predecessor, the Hyannis Mets. Melley hit .359 in 58 collegiate games last spring with 47 RBI and four home runs, his best career marks to date.
Wheaton College’s Kyle Kasprzyk, a Falmouth High graduate and former Sandwich Post 188 American Legion hurler, has made three appearances out of the bullpen this season for the Lyons. The hard-throwing righty had a stellar freshman campaign with 11 trips out of the bullpen and he also struck out the side in his first-ever collegiate appearance last spring. He is the son of Camille Romano and Mark Kasprzyk of East Falmouth and he is majoring in economics.
Bentley College sophomore Nick Taber, a four-year varsity star at Nauset Regional High School and two-time District 10 American Legion all-district team selection for Orleans Post 308, made 11 appearances last year on the college diamond and has made four already this spring. The former Atlantic Coast League All-Star for the Warriors is the son of Ken and Erica Taber of Eastham.
Those are just a handful of examples of how some of the Cape’s high school-aged baseball products have performed thus far this spring. One of the anomalies of this collegiate season, however, is that most of the playing time the native Cape players have had this spring has been down south. Pretty much every collegiate team has experienced cancellation upon postponement upon cancellation.
Massachusetts Maritime Academy originally stated it had scheduled 36 games for this spring but has already whittle that schedule down by nearly a third due to Commodore Hendy Field in Buzzards Bay still being unplayable. The Buccaneers and schools like Tufts, Gordon, Holy Cross and Southern Maine have been playing games this week playing at the New England Baseball Complex in Northboro, Mass.
Westfield State’s Pete Liimatainen closed out the game for his second save of the season last week against Cazenovia while The Owls were wrapping up their spring Florida trip. Dave Caspole photo/courtesy of WSU Athletics
“The snow is pretty bad still,” said Westfield State’s Liimatainen, who also has three saves to his credit this spring. “(We) probably won’t be able to get on the field for another two weeks, maybe three.”
Former longtime youth and high school teammate Bent agreed that the weather this spring has wreaked havoc with a collegiate season that usually is in full swing by now.
“It’s ridiculous,” Bent said. “I’ve been wondering what they’re going to do with all these games getting cancelled, whether it’s just going to be a shortened season or if they’re going to extend it. (It) should be interesting to see.”
Massachusetts Maritime Academy has already postponed today’s game against Clark University and Saturday’s doubleheader at Worcester State has been postponed. The Buccaneers return to the New England Baseball Complex on Sunday at 3:00 pm versus Babson, but the game was originally scheduled to be played in Buzzards Bay.
In any event, we’ve put together a list of most if not all of the Cape’s baseball natives who’ve gone on to and currently play collegiate baseball. Let’s hope they all get back on the field sometime soon!
Spencer McCaffrey (D-Y/Frankling Pierce) – Post 206 American Legion
Bob Melley (BC High/UConn) – Team Cape Cod
Willie Nastasi (Barnstable/UNC-Pembroke) – Team Cape Cod
Luke Besse (Barnstable/Dickinson) – Post 206 American Legion
Everett Walsh (Barnstable/Mass. Maritime) – Post 206 American Legion
Terrence Mudie (Barnstable/Mass. Maritime) – Post 206 American Legion
Ben Crago (St. John Paul II/Mass. Maritime)
Connor Kennedy (St. John Paul II/Mass. Maritime) – Post 206 American Legion
Conor Walsh (Barnstable/Clark) – Post 206 American Legion
Chris Fowler (Barnstable/Wheaton) – Post 206 American Legion
Derek Estes (Barnstable/CCRI) – Post 206 American Legion
Jack Harrington (Barnstable/UMass-Dartmouth) – Post 206 American Legion
George Bent (Barnstable/UMass-Dartmouth) – Post 206 American Legion
Kyle Kasprzyk (Falmouth/Wheaton) – Post 188 American Legion
Alec Morrison (Salisbury/Holy Cross) – Post 206 American Legion/Team Cape Cod
Ray Rowell (Nauset/Bentley) – Team Cape Cod
Nick Taber (Nauset/Bentley) – Post 308 American Legion
Liam Matheson (D-Y/Bentley) – Team Cape Cod
Ty Adams (Barnstable/Westfield State) – Team Cape Cod
Pete Liimatainen (Barnstable/Westfield State) – Post 206 American Legion
Dylan Morris (Barnstable/UMass-Amherst) – Post 206 American Legion
Will Toffey (Barnstable/Salisbury/Vanderbilt) – Post 206 American Legion
Ben Gibson (St. John Paul II/Quinnipiac) — AAU
Wyatt Hamilton (Falmouth/Avon Old Farms/Quinnipiac) – Post 188 American Legion
John O’Rourke (Falmouth High/Curry) – n/a
Nick Kennedy (Sandwich High/Roger Williams) – Babe Ruth
Sam Johnson (Cape Cod Academy/Gordon) – n/a (also plays collegiate basketball)
Neal Horan (BC High/Stonehill) – Babe Ruth
Michael Young (St. John Paul II/Stonehill) — AAU
Ryan Johnson
Bryant University
John Stanton (Sandwich/Southern New Hampshire) – Post 188 American Legion
Ryan Johnson (Falmouth/Bryant) – AAU
Dan DiMatteo (Cape Tech/Westfield State) – Team Cape Cod
Jonah Olsen (Falmouth/Mass. Maritime) – n/a
Drew Tardif (D-Y/Mass. Maritime) – Post 206 American Legion
Stephen Brown (Monomoy/Westfield State) – Babe Ruth
Connor Collett (Bourne High/Fitchburg State) – Post 188 American Legion
Justin Thomson (D-Y/Westfield State) – Team Cape Cod
TJ Wardwell (Barnstable/Mount Aloysius) – Post 206 American Legion
Mike Molta (Nantucket/Westfield State) – Team Cape Cod
Will Ferreira (Nantucket/Endicott) – Team Cape Cod
Corey Andrade (Mashpee/Anna Maria) – Babe Ruth
Danny Johnson (St. John’s Prep/Emerson) – n/a
Donald May (Coyle Cassidy/Fordham)—Bay State Games
Matt Cook (Harwich High/Wheaton) – Team Cape Cod
David Kent (Falmouth/St. Anselm) – Post 188 American Legion
Collin Russell (Eastern Connecticut State) — AAU
Luke Chevalier
Northern State
Davarn Nova (Coyle Cassidy/Endicott) – Post 220 American Legion
Luke Chevalier (Sturgis/Northern State) – Post 188 American Legion
Chase Orava (D-Y/Southern Maine) – Team Cape Cod
Tim Rodrigues (Barnstable/Southern Maine CC) – Babe Ruth
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm. Walsh is also the head coach of Barnstable Post 206 American Legion Baseball.
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