Home Run Power Surges At Cape League All-Star Game
SOUTH YARMOUTH – The schedule for the day of festivities at the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox’s Red Wilson Field last Saturday clearly listed a home run contest to take place a couple hours before the Cape League All-Star game.
But after the contest wrapped up and the players took the field for the actual game, it was hard to tell the difference between the two events. In a show of surging power that included seven home runs, the East All-Stars muscled to a 13-8 win over the West.
“The bats were hot today,” Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox and East All-Stars manager Scott Pickler said.
“It’s a great day,” he said. “You look at the crowd. You look at the weather. You look at the people here. This is what the Cape League’s all about, and to have that many good players on the field at one time and produce like that, it was fun to be around them. It was a great environment in the dugout.”
Right before baseballs started flying repeatedly over the outfield fence, a bit of small ball by leadoff hitter Elijah Ickes opened the scoring for the East. Ickes, an Orleans Firebirds shortstop from the University of Hawaii, singled, advanced to second after the West’s left fielder carried a flyout beyond the bounds of the playing area, stole third and scored on a throwing error.
“You just try to be relaxed, and I felt like that was my approach today and it worked out well,” Ickes said.
On the very next pitch after Ickes came home, Brewster Whitecaps second baseman Dalton Wentz (Wake Forest) crushed a home run to right field. Two pitches later, Harwich Mariners third baseman Dee Kennedy (Kansas State) pulled a home run to left to go back-to-back with Wentz off the West’s starter, Falmouth right-hander Trever Baumler, and put the East up 3-0 in the first.
“I was just trying to go out there and be competitive my first at-bat and put a good swing on something, and I think it kind of gave us a chance to jump-start and have a good offensive day,” Wentz said.
The East led 10-1 after a six-run third inning, topped off by designated hitter Ashton Larson, a Chatham Angler transferring from LSU to Texas playing his second Cape League All-Star game, hitting a two-run home run.
Fellow Angler Daniel Jackson, a catcher from Georgia, blasted a two-RBI home run in the sixth. The very next batter, Harwich outfielder Aiden Robbins (a Texas transfer from Seton Hall), hit a solo shot, the second set of back-to-back home runs on the day for the East, to make the score 13-4.
“They’re just good baseball players, and they took advantage of the weather and the wind,” Pickler said. “And nobody was overswinging, and it was really fun to watch.”
Falmouth catcher Bear Harrison and Wareham outfielder Chase Krewson also hit home runs for the West in the later innings.
“The energy was up all day,” Wentz said. “When the ball is leaving the yard, the fans love it. The hitters love it. Everybody’s involved, so it was super cool to get to have a day like that.”
And yet even with the number of home runs hit, both most valuable players named post-game did their damage inside the park. Harwich center fielder Tre Broussard (Houston) was crowned MVP of the East after going three for three with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored. Falmouth right fielder Antonio Morales had two hits, one RBI, a steal and a run scored and was named MVP of the West.
The Cape League All-Star teams combined for 30 hits. In addition to Broussard and the home run hitters, Orleans catcher Cashel Dugger (UCLA) and Orleans left fielder Robbie Lavey (George Washington) also batted in runs for the East. Larson led all players with three RBIs.
“Everybody got a piece today,” Broussard said.
The standout pitching performance of the game came from Orleans right-hander Ethan Foley (California), who struck out two and allowed no hits in one-and-a-third innings. The East’s starter Brady Hamilton (Wichita State), a Yarmouth-Dennis right-hander, earned the win.
On both sides, the All-Star position players made it clear they had the upper hand Saturday. The 21 total runs tied a Cape League All-Star record set in 1985, according to a league press release.
“They all used the middle of the field,” Pickler said. “When hitters use the middle of the field, good things happen, and that was their approach all day.”
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