Cape League Notes: Thousands Come To Mariners Game For Celtics’ Payton Pritchard

by Erez Ben-Akiva

A palpable buzz of activity emanated at and around Whitehouse Field last Tuesday, July 15 as more than 2,500 fans were in attendance to see Payton Pritchard of the Boston Celtics throw out a ceremonial first pitch before the Harwich Mariners game.
Pritchard’s wife Emma went to Nauset Regional High School, and the two married in Harwich last summer. Pritchard, the NBA’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year, wore a number 11 (his Celtics number) Mariners uniform as he fired a pitch to Harwich’s Maddox Molony, a fellow Oregon native and University of Oregon Duck. 
Throngs of people lined up to meet Pritchard behind the home dugout afterwards, while the Mariners played the Orleans Firebirds. The point guard’s presence brought a pretty significant bump in attendance. The last game at Whitehouse Field prior to the evening of Pritchard’s first pitch had a listed attendance of 1,130. The next game at the Mariners home field right after Pritchard came to Harwich had an attendance of 1,140. Pritchard’s game had an attendance of 2,570.
Home Run Contest
While the East felt most of the fun when the division won the All-Star game last Saturday, the West shined earlier in the day during the Cape League’s home run contest. Brewster’s Carson Tinney placed third, hitting 10 home runs in the derby’s final round behind the 15 hit by Wareham’s Easton Breyfogle and 16 hit by winner Kuhio Aloy of Bourne.
Chatham’s Daniel Jackson and Brewster’s Brendan Lawson were eliminated in the first round by Aloy and Breyfogle, respectively, though Jackson a few hours later blasted a two-run homer during the actual All-Star game.  
Chatham Anglers
Chatham split a pair of home games heading into the All-Star game last weekend, the first an 8-1 loss to the Hyannis Harbor Hawks. In the top of the third of that game, Owen Prince of Hyannis hit a double to left field, sliding past the tag at second base of Anglers shortstop Isaiah Lane. After the inning, third base umpire Mickey Garcia walked over to the bleachers just past the Chatham dugout and, affably, asked spectators through the fence if he had missed the call. He said he’d ask the shortstop, Lane, and let everyone know what he said. 
Sure enough, as Lane came out to take the field before the top of the fourth, he and Garcia could be seen briefly chatting. Then, Garcia motioned a thumbs up towards the third base bleachers. After the game, Lane confirmed he told Garcia his call was right; he had missed the tag at the base. 
“We just kind of laughed it off, but I told him he was safe,” Lane said.
One of the mainstays of an Anglers offense that ranks near the top of the league in most hitting metrics is outfielder Jackson Freeman (Northwestern), an All-Star starter who entered last weekend with the fourth-most hits and the 12th-highest on-base-plus-slugging percentage leaguewide. He said Chatham had had really good lineups put together from top to bottom.
“I think that makes it really hard on pitchers, like knowing that you got to attack the guy that’s up to the plate because the guy on deck’s not any easier, so I think that kind of helps everyone out and it’s helped me out this summer,” Freeman said.
The Anglers’ Veterans Field served as the set for an edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter last Tuesday (after press time), part of the program’s “50 States in 50 Days” cross-country tour.
Orleans Firebirds
Orleans spoiled Payton Pritchard night in Harwich by beating the Mariners 7-2, then split its next four games. That included a 12-9 comeback win Monday against Bourne in which Orleans trailed by seven runs after two innings.
Firebirds catcher/left fielder Robbie Lavey, an All-Star game starter, has excelled this summer in a league where the name “George Washington” doesn’t pop up very often. Lavey, who plays at George Washington University in the Atlantic 10 Conference, came into Tuesday tied for third in the league in runs batted in and 10th in on-base-plus-slugging.
“I have a lot of confidence in myself and who I am as a player,” Lavey said. “I definitely think that I could come up here and compete well.”
George Washington ranks 184th by the NCAA’s rating percentage index for Division 1 baseball teams, lowest among all the schools represented in this year’s Cape League All-Star game.
“I want to represent my school and kind of get the name out there, like it’s such a cool opportunity to kind of show off that we can compete with everyone,” Lavey said.
Harwich Mariners
Harwich entered the All-Star weekend on a two-game win streak but subsequently dropped its first game after the break. Kansas State’s Dee Kennedy, an All-Star starter, led qualified third basemen leaguewide in on-base percentage (.381) as of Tuesday. 
During a game against the Whitecaps earlier this July, Kennedy jumped into his team’s dugout in an effort to catch a foul pop-up. The ball was in his mitt but came out when he fell and hit the ground, according to Kennedy, who said prior to the All-Star game it was the first time he had ever actually jumped into a dugout like that.
“I’m leaving it all out there,” he said.
Brewster Whitecaps
Brewster scuffled a bit going into All-Star Saturday, losing four of five heading into the weekend but winning Monday. The night before the game, the Whitecaps visited Chatham, which meant another trip to Veterans Field for longtime Anglers head John Schiffner. An assistant coach for Brewster this summer, Schiffner managed Chatham for 25 years and was with the organization for 34 years total. 
On being back at Veterans Field, Schiffner said it’s “special” for him and he was “glad to get an opportunity to do it.”
“It’s home for me,” he said.





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