Compiled by Allan Simpson (PG Crosschecker) / Andrew Hartwell (College Summer Ball Blogspot)
The 2009 regular season has established the leading contenders for the nation’s top summer college team. Now it will be up to the various forms of post-season play that exist in summer ball to determine the No. 1 team.
Playoffs have begun (and even ended) in most leagues, with the notable exception of the Cape Cod League. The Cape’s expanded playoffs (from four teams to six) begin Friday, and that’s very relevant as the league’s top team, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, is ranked No. 1 for the second week in a row among the nation’s top summer clubs and will be seeking its third Cape playoff title in the last four years. Fittingly, the Red Sox earned a final No. 1 ranking by PG Crosschecker when they won league championships in 2006 and 2007.
A year ago, the California Collegiate League’s Santa Barbara Foresters stole the thunder of the powerful and prestigious Cape League by running the table to win the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan., to claim the No. 1 ranking. The No. 5-ranked Foresters are back to defend their title, and scheduled to open play in the 75th edition of the 37-team NBC tournament Thursday.
Several other summer teams are primed to step into the No. 1 spot if Y-D should falter in the Cape playoffs—or even Santa Barbara at the NBC tournament. Among the leading contenders are the Coastal Plain League’s Forest City Owls, who were ranked No. 1 for four straight weeks earlier this summer; the surging Newport Gulls of the New England Collegiate League; and the Corvallis Knights of the West Coast League. Forest City is ranked No. 2 this week, while Newport is at No. 4 and Corvallis at No. 6.
Forest City begins play Thursday in the CPL’s three-tiered, eight-team Pettit Cup competition, and must beat three-time defending champion Thomasville in a one-game showdown just to move on to the second round.
It would not be inconceivable, though, for either No. 3 Bourne or No. 7 Orleans, two of the hottest teams in the Cape Cod League entering post-season play, to vault into the No. 1 spot if they can overtake Yarmouth-Dennis and successfully complete a run through the league playoffs.
We’ll rank the top 25 summer college league teams every Tuesday or Wednesday from 20-plus leagues around the country, and here’s our take on the top teams in Week Eight (last week’s ranking noted in parentheses).