SUMMER 16
Led by a pair of former high school and summer league teammates, the Cape Cod League’s Cotuit Kettleers and Orleans Cardinals jockeyed for position atop PG Crosschecker’s weekly Summer 16, a ranking of the nation’s top summer college teams. The Kettleers, who continue to lead the Cape in batting average and ERA by significant margins, stretched their record to 10-5 and retained the No. 1 spot while the defending
Cape
champion Cardinals won nine of 11 to boost their record to 12-5 and jump from No. 11 to No. 2.
The Kettleers have been powered by
South Carolina
freshman first baseman Justin Smoak (.357-3-8), while the Cardinals have been led offensively by Georgia Tech catcher Matt Wieters (.412-2-9). Smoak, a projected first-round pick in 2008, and Wieters, a projected first-round pick in 2007, once played together at Stratford High in
Goose Creek, S.C.
, and also for the Charleston, S.C.-based South Carolina Diamond Devils.
The nation’s top 16 college summer league teams, through games of July 5:
Team League Record LW
1. Cotuit Kettleers
Cape
Cod 10-5 1
2.
Orleans
Cardinals
Cape
Cod 12-5 11
3. Coppell Copperheads
Texas
17-5 10
4.
Fayetteville
Swampdogs Coastal Plain 19-6 3
5.
Wareham
Gatemen
Cape
Cod 10-6 2
6. New Market Rebels Valley 19-5 9
7.
Rochester
Honkers Northwoods 23-10 4
8.
Newport
Gulls New
England
14-6 NR
9.
Florence
Redwolves Coastal Plain 19-7 12
10. Brewster WhiteCaps
Cape
Cod 9-7 NR
11. Peninsula Oilers
Alaska
16-8 NR
12.
Vienna
Senators Clark Griffith 18-5 NR
13. Eldorado Broncos Jayhawk 25-7 NR
14.
McKinney
Marshals
Texas
15-7 7
15. Mat-Su Miners
Alaska
14-7 15
16.
Waynesboro
Generals Valley 17-7 14
--Compiled by Allan Simpson