Cape League Notes: Lower Cape Teams Begin Postseason Play

The postseason picture for the Cape Cod Baseball League was set on the final day of the season this past Sunday. 

In the East, the surging Orleans Firebirds claimed first place (and the league’s best record) and were set to take on the fourth-place Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the division series. 

The Harwich Mariners and Brewster Whitecaps, meanwhile, finished tied by points in the standings, but the Mariners won the head-to-head tiebreaker and will host two of the three games in the division series. The Chatham Anglers, in fifth place, didn’t qualify for the postseason.

In the West, the first-place Bourne Braves were slated to face the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the division series, while the second-place Wareham Gatemen were set to play the Cotuit Kettleers. The Falmouth Commodores didn’t qualify for postseason play. The division series began Tuesday after press time.

Whitecaps outfielder Adam Magpoc (a San Diego State transfer from Boston College) finished the year as the Cape League’s stolen bases leader. Magpoc stole 26 bases on 30 attempts (next closest was Bourne’s Jon LeGrande, who stole 21 on 27 attempts).

Pacing the league in steals wasn’t something Magpoc expected to do when he first arrived on the Cape. 

“At the beginning, it was really just me trying to make my impact on the team, and then it just kind of turned into, like, ‘Oh my god, I can kind of do this,’” he said.

For Magpoc, stealing is a numbers-based venture (centered on measurements like a pitcher’s time to throw to home plate) but also based on feel and situation.

“You want to take a lot of pride in baserunning,” Magpoc said.

 Brewster manager Jamie Shevchik earned his second ejection of the season last Friday during a 9-2 win against Yarmouth-Dennis after a confusing play in which Red Sox right fielder Will Baker was said to have caught a deep drive by Whitecaps designated hitter Collin Priest.

With two out and a runner on in the sixth, Priest ripped a fly ball to the warning track at Stony Brook Field. Baker leapt, crashing into the wall and appearing to corral the ball in his glove but then also seeming to pick the baseball up off the ground after impact. First base umpire Michael Chukerman ruled the play out, and the call was upheld after a conference among the umpiring crew. That’s when Shevchik came out to argue and was subsequently tossed from the game.

Before the last game of the season, right-handed pitcher Kyle Kipp (Boston College) was given the John J. Claffey Award for the most outstanding New England player. Kipp, from Stamford, Conn., threw 17-and-a-third relief innings to the tune of a 0.00 ERA for Brewster. The Whitecaps then walked off Orleans to end the Firebirds’ seven-game win streak. 

 The Firebirds’ final win in their seven-game streak of victories last Saturday happened to be a great encapsulation of the wild ways of the always-changing Cape League rosters.

 The game, a 7-6 walk-off in extras against Hyannis, featured Orleans 2025 mainstays like Elijah Ickes (Hawaii), Robbie Lavey (George Washington), Dawson Bryce (Charlotte) and Javar Williams (Wake Forest). But the night, the second to last game of the regular season, also saw the Cape debuts of right-handed pitcher James Gladden (Maryland) and left fielder Landon Hairston (Arizona State).

 Hairston had been signed to play on Martha’s Vineyard for another summer league, but he never actually even made it, he said. Staying home and working out in Arizona instead, Hairston waited to get clearance to play in the Cape League. That clearance finally came, and Hairston joined the Firebirds last week. 

There were some cobwebs playing in his first game, Hairston said, but he also hit two doubles. He hadn’t run the bases in a while.

“There's a little bit of rust, but overall, it was a good experience,” Hairston said.

 Right fielder Anthony Potestio (UC San Diego) finished as the league’s on-base percentage leader (.424), just in front of Ickes, who led the Cape in walks. 

The Mariners finished the regular season with the Cape’s best run differential (+41, the next best team had +26). Harwich had the league’s best pitching staff by earned run average (3.27) and runs allowed (145). 

Outfielder Aiden Robbins (a Texas transfer from Seton Hall) finished as the league’s on-base-plus-slugging percentage leader (.936). 

Swampscott native right-hander Pierce Friedman (Maine) pitched six-and-two-thirds no-hit innings in his Cape League debut last Saturday.

The Anglers missed out on the postseason, finishing in last place four points behind the fourth-place Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in manager Dennis Cook’s first year at the helm.

The last game of the year, however, saw Chatham walk off Harwich by scoring on a wild pitch in the 10th inning. 

Catcher and designated hitter Daniel Jackson (Georgia) finished as the Cape’s leader in runs scored.