It’s that time of year again where baseball really starts to come back to the Cape, and I slowly, but surely, start to dust off the winter months spent working, studying, and very clearly not writing about baseball (two jobs and seeking a masters will do that to you).
That said, the NCAA DIII New England Regionals are back in town, hosted again by the ECAC (and staffed by an army of very excited and baseball-ready Cape League volunteers on our very own Whitehouse Field in Harwich). It’s the greatest feeling being back at the fields, the lights coming on as dusk falls, the cool and damp temperatures reminding us that it’s not quite summer yet, but everything else saying, hey, guess what, the season is almost here. A mere four weeks away, in fact.
THAT said, rosters are beginning to settle for the Cape–and by settle, I mean frantically turn as we look to fill roster spots for players who have accepted invitations to play for Team USA or for players making a College World Series run, or flat out replacing players who can’t make it to the Cape for one reason or another (academics, injury, pitch count, summer school, poor spring performance, choice, whatever). I figure by August they’ll be set.
Joke aside, there are two previews out on the divisions up on the league website, written by my awesome team of interns, and I’ll start looking at them more in depth myself as we come down the line this last month–I’m very excited to see who will, in fact, make it. The process is almost as fun to watch as the games themselves. Invitation-only tryouts are just two weeks away, and I’m hoping for another Charlie Furbush or Justin Masterson this year–kids who came out of nowhere to blow the competition away, earn a full time contract, and even go on to the bigs.
So let the season come, let this week of the regionals be a great run for a team (and a nice dry run for the rest of us getting ready for our season), and let’s play some ball.





