ORLEANS – Summer family trips to Cape Cod are a staple for many Massachusetts families. Being able to enjoy the beach, some baseball or mini golf make it a great place for a vacation getaway. Three Orleans Firebirds pitchers are getting the chance to relive those Cape memories, but this time as a part of a Cape League team. Orleans’ pitching trio of Alex Amalfi, Sam Conte and Ben Shields, who hail from Ashland...

BREWSTER – After sweeping the playoffs with four consecutive wins, the Brewster Whitecaps were crowned the Cape League’s 2021 champions. While the team is hoping to defend its title this summer, the Whitecaps’ focus at the start of the season has been finding the right team culture. Just like most teams at this early stage of the season, the Whitecaps are still waiting for some of their best players to arrive....

ORLEANS – Folding chairs lining Eldredge Park’s grassy hillside hours before the first pitch was thrown marked the first sign of Cape League baseball’s return to Orleans. The Firebirds faithful that arrived early were rewarded, as the team jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead against the visiting Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the first inning of Sunday’s season opener. Although the Firebirds and Red Sox ultimately f...

CHATHAM – Cape Cod baseball is back, but the Chatham Anglers are still waiting for some key contributors to arrive. The short-handed Anglers only mustered four hits in Sunday’s season opener, a 5-0 loss to the Cotuit Kettleers at Veterans Field. While the showing was not exactly what the team wanted, manager Tom Holliday said the roster is expecting reinforcements in the coming weeks as the majority of team...

The four Lower Cape-based Cape Cod Baseball League teams are ramping up preseason preparations ahead of the league’s full slate of Opening Day games set for June 12. Although team officials from Chatham, Harwich, Orleans and Brewster have different to-do lists to accomplish before the first pitches are thrown, the four East Division rivals are all on the same page about one thing: they’re excited for another s...

CHATHAM – Fifty-five years have passed since the 1967 Boston Red Sox pulled off what affectionately became known as “The Impossible Dream” after the team posted its first winning season since 1958 and advanced to the World Series for the first time since 1946. Peter Fraser was among the thousands of young kids who fell in love with the ’67 Sox while growing up in Massachusetts. There were a lot of players t...

ORLEANS – With just about a month and a half remaining before the Cape Cod Baseball League hosts its Opening Day on June 12, the Orleans Firebirds are looking for Lower Cape residents who are interested in hosting players for the upcoming season. “We ask host families to open up their houses to a player or players, most families like to take two players,” said Nancy Nickerson, the Firebirds’ assistant genera...

Bust out a permanent marker and flip your calendar to the summer months: the Cape Cod Baseball League’s summer schedule is upon us. The CCBL on Sunday released its master schedule for the 2022 season, which will feature 44 regular season games, an eight-team playoff format and a return of the All-Star game, scheduled for July 23 at Spillane Field in Wareham. All 10 teams will be in action on opening day on ...

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...

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...