They came. They got vaccinated. They played. This summer the Cape Cod Baseball League faced a challenge it hadn’t seen since World War II: It had to come back and play a season following a summer without baseball. The Cape’s year-round residents and summer tourists packed the ballparks and the CCBL set new attendance records all summer long, beginning in June when the league’s five opening day crowds drew 1...

Lara Rouillard was visiting Brazil in early December 2020 when she discovered that longtime New England Patriots cheerleading coach Tracy Sormanti had died after a three-year battle with multiple myeloma. The news was a blow for Rouillard, who first connected with Sormanti in 2019 when she reached out to the coach to learn more about the team’s tryouts. Rouillard tried out to be a Patriots cheerleader in 2019 ...

A trio of baseball players from Nauset Regional High School and another who spends his summers in Chatham helped the Team Cape Cod Senior Babe Ruth baseball team win the New England championship and advance to the Senior Babe Ruth 16-18U World Series tournament in Mobile, Ala. Recent Nauset graduates Kurt Thomas and Ethan Keeney, as well as rising senior Noah Clarke, were among the players to play for Team Cap...

Monomoy’s soccer program just got a little more serious. On Monday night, the South Coast Soccer League voted to accept the newly-formed Monomoy Youth Soccer program as a member of its league. Monomoy Youth Soccer was spearheaded by president Jason Laramee and vice president Jenn Peterson, who serves as the girls varsity coach at Monomoy Regional High School. “Although the rec departments offer some opportu...

HARWICH –There was one out in the ninth inning and the bases were loaded when the call was made. It was Game 2 of the Cape League’s East Division championship series, and Harwich closer Owen Coady was in the midst of battling Brewster’s No. 3 hitter, Zachary Neto, who fouled off the fourth and fifth pitches of his at-bat after the Mariners’ reliever from the University of Pennsylvania threw him a ball, followe...

HARWICH – The speculative whispers seemed to follow the Harwich Mariners wherever they played during the last week of the season. The folks hanging around the Cape League ballparks began wondering who might be named the league’s Most Valuable Player, and Harwich third baseman Brock Wilken’s name was among the few that seemed to enter every conversation. In the end, Wilken took home the prestigious hardware ...

HARWICH – Trey Dombroski arrived on Cape Cod at the beginning of the summer with a temporary contract and a crystal-clear objective. “My whole goal was to just get exposure and get my work in, pretty much,” said Dombroski, a left-handed pitcher for the Harwich Mariners. “I wanted to work on some stuff and just kind of meet new guys and see what works for them and what doesn’t.” Harwich pitching coach Steve ...

HARWICH PORT – The crunch of your tires rolling down a broken-seashell driveway is the first indicator that you are on the right path. If you are met with a tunnel of miniature American flags resting in the shadows of a never-ending row of hydrangea flowers, keep driving ahead, because that is another sign you are close. When you spot a half-dozen-or-so cars and a couple stray bicycles parked in front of the h...

ORLEANS – The surprise was put to the test early in the morning when Orleans Firebirds manager Kelly Nicholson sent his longtime friend and former player-turned-assistant coach Chris Beck a text message asking him if he was awake and available to chat. “I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I have kids, I’m awake,’” Beck recalled of the text exchange, which came right around 10 a.m. on June 28. “He thought it was 7 o’clock...

SOUTH YARMOUTH – It goes without saying that many Cape Cod Baseball League players are tremendous athletes. Even so, some are more athletic than others. Over the years, the Cape League has attracted some of the nation’s top collegiate ballplayers. Their talent isn’t limited to the diamond, though—former Oklahoma University star Kylar Murray played for the Harwich Mariners in 2017 and now plays quarterback for ...

ORLEANS – The real work behind a home run chase happens hours before the first pitch. It happens outside of the batter’s box, away from the ballpark and long before any spectators arrive to the field. For Orleans sluggers Chase DeLauter and Tyler Locklear, two of the Cape League’s fiercest power hitters, the work begins in the weight room at Nauset Fit Co., where the duo meets Firebirds’ strength and condition...

Chatham manager Tom Holliday doesn’t mince his words. Ask the Anglers skipper about any aspect of the Cape Cod Baseball League and he’ll shoot you straight, often offering a colorful sound-byte that provides a glimpse at the manager’s unique outlook of baseball. Knowing Holliday is forthright, it makes the manager’s analysis of Chatham shortstop Josh Rivera all the more impressive. “He’s the real deal. He’s...