The 46th Annual Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game

An estimated crowd of 8,629 piled into Veteran’s Field last Saturday night for the 46th Cape League All-Star Game. Of the nearly 9,000 fans in attendance, there were probably at least 50 Major League scouts. The entire section of the stands behind home plate was roped off with signage saying “Scouts Only.” If you walked by that section at any point in the game, you would see at least a dozen radar guns pointed toward the mound, clocking the pitches from the fresh meat on the hill.

In typical Cape League fashion, the early portion of the game was dominated by great pitching. The East offense was dominated by the first four pitchers that toed the rubber, going hitless until the 5th inning. Then in the 6th, the offense for the West exploded for five runs off of Martin Viramontes (Orleans Cardinals, Loyola Marymount), as he could only record one out.

Viramontes’ struggles set the plate for the most inspiring pitching performance of the night. With just one out, and the West All-Stars rounding the bases as if it were a merry-go-round, Chris Manno (Harwich Mariners), a 6 foot 3 lefty from Duke, was asked to warm up as quickly as possible and enter the game an inning before he was scheduled. I watched him warm up in the bullpen. Clearly he had never warmed up with this particular bullpen catcher before that night, as Manno directed him through his typical routine, which appeared to be very precise and specific to him.

When Manno was finally loose, he was called upon with the bases loaded, and two outs to get out of the jam, with the meat of the order coming up. He answered with back-to-back strikeouts to the number two and three hitters, Jimmy Cesario (Falmouth Commodores, Houston) and Marc Krauss (Bourne Braves, Ohio). Manno came back out for the 7th inning and sat down the four, five and six hitters in order to complete his perfect 1 2/3 inning, and holding the deficit to 6-1 in favor of the West.

The bottom of the 8th inning was an event in itself. The East All-Stars came to the plate looking to erase the 5-run lead built by the West—a very tall task in a Cape League game. The game had been flying to this point, but this inning saw two interruptions. The first came at 9:11 p.m. when the PA announcer interrupted the game to observe the 9/11 tragedy, which was a very nice gesture. Then, the game resumed, but perhaps not without rattling the concentration of Seth Blair (Cotuit Kettleers, Arizona State), who was on the mound for the West. He proceeded to give up three runs to make it a 6-4 ball game.

Then, at precisely 9:33, Blair was interrupted yet again. This time it was in the middle of a Grant Green (Chatham A’s, USC) at bat, when three streakers emerged from the right field foul territory, ran through the bullpen (where Ben Tootle was currently warming up), and across the outfield making a swift exit, hopping over the centerfield fence. It’s tough to say how this would affect a player’s mental concentration, but if it did in fact have an effect, it was positive for Grant Green as he reentered the batters box after being keeled over in laughter. Green, with a runner on 3rd, proceeded to hit the first pitch he saw deep to center and out of the park, over the same fence that was just scaled by streakers in the prior seconds. The game was tied 6-6.

Then Mark Fleury, Harwich’s catcher from UNC, gave the East All-Stars the lead with a 2-run shot to cap the score at 8-6, capping the come from behind victory, that was closed out by Brad Boxberger (Chatham A’s, USC) in the 9th.

Grant Green took home the MVP honors with his game-tying 2-run homer in the 8th inning. Here’s a look at all of the notable performances from the game:

Grant Green (USC) 1-4, HR, 2 RBI
Mark Fleury (UNC) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI
AJ Pollack (Notre Dame) 2-3, HR
Rich Poythress (Georgia) 1-2, HR
Tim Wheeler (Loyola Marymount) 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI
Ben Paulsen (Clemson) 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI

Chris Manno (Duke) 1.2 IP, 0 H, 4 K
Bryce Stowell (UC Irvine) 1 IP, 0 H, 3 K
Sammy Solis (San Diego) 1 IP, 0 H, 2 K
Brandon Workman (Texas) 1 IP, 0 H, 2 K
Adam Wilk (Long Beach State) 1 IP, 1 H, 3 K
Andrew Carraway (Virginia) 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K
Nick McCully (Coastal Caronlina) 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K
Dallas Keuchel (Arkansas) 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K
Brad Boxberger (USC) 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K, SV
Russell Brewer (Vanderbuilt) 1 IP, 0 H, 0 K
Buddy Baumann (Missouri State) 1 IP, 0 H, 0 K, WIN