FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
COCA-COLA PLAYER OF THE WEEK

AJ Pollack from Notre Dame

Falmouth center-fielder A.J. Pollock is the latest winner of the Coca-Cola Player of the Week award in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Pollock, who has excelled all season as Falmouth’s leadoff hitter, batted .478 during the week ending July 25. His 11 base hits included three doubles and a game-winning home run. Although not a factor in his selection, Pollock also homered for the West Division in Saturday night’s Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game in Chatham. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CCBL RELEASE
Coca-Cola Player of the Week

Mark Fleury (UNC)

It was a week to remember for Harwich catcher/DH Mark Fleury (North Carolina). The 6-foot, 202-pound junior-to-be at UNC went on an offensive tear for the Mariners, batting .462 during the week ending July 20 and being chosen Coca-Cola Player of the Week. The honor came one day after Fleury was named to the East Division All-Star Team. Fleury had 12 hits in 26 at-bats spread over six games. Included were one double, one triple and two home runs, resulting in nine runs batted in. His slugging percentage for the week was a hefty .808 and his on base percentage was .481. And his hitting came in clutch situations. On Monday, for instance, his two-run homer keyed a four-run eighth inning which snapped a 3-3 tie and lifted Harwich past Hyannis, 7-3. Over-all, he was 3-for-5 in that important victory over the West Division’s first-place team. The left-handed swinger from Roswell, Ga., was selected as the East Division’s reserve catcher for Saturday’s All-Star Game at Veterans Field in Chatham. Read the rest of this entry »

On July 9th only four outs stood between Matt Stabelfeld and a no-hitter. The Bellingham Bells’ 21-year-old left-hander was cruising towards a no-no until he gave up a two-out eighth-inning single to the Kitsap Blue Jackets’ Doug Buser of Oklahoma, a 2008 WCCBL All-Star.

Stabelfeld’s near masterpiece came at venerable Joe Martin Field in Bellingham. It was the Lewis-Clark State College product’s first win of the season. The southpaw from Turlock, California was 2-1 in 15 games this spring at L-C State.

The Bells defeated the BlueJackets 5-0, as Stabelfeld ended up going 8 innings, allowing just one hit, while walking five and fanning four.

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
COCA COLA PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Bourne right-hander Bryce Stowell (Cal-Irvine) came within two outs of pitching a complete-game shutout Friday night against Wareham and the performance earned him Coca-Cola Pitcher of the Week honors for the seven-day period ending July 12. The 6-2, 205-pound native of La Habra, Calif., now boasts the Cape Cod Baseball League’s lowest ERA – 0.36 – after working 26 innings in which he struck out 31 batters, walked only five and scattered 10 hits. In his 2-0 victory over Wareham, he struck out eight, did not walk a batter and doled out seven hits. Stowell was 8-3 with a 3.26 ERA at Cal-Irvine this spring as a sophomore. Read the rest of this entry »

Brett Nicholas of the Kelowna Falcons, a 19-year-old left-handed hitting catcher/first baseman from Gonzaga, hit .500 for the week to earn West Coast Collegiate Baseball League Player of the Week honors.

Nicholas hit safely in all six of the Falcons’ games, including a 4-hit performance Saturday night at Kitsap. The Phoenix, Arizona-native knocked in 5 runs, including a 3-RBI game July 2 against Spokane. The Falcons went 2-4 for the week, with both wins coming at home over the RiverHawks. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
PITCHER OF THE WEEK

Ricky Bowen had just completed a less-than-satisfying season as a red-shirted sophomore at Mississippi State University when he reported to the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League. But the 6-3, 197-pound right-hander improved his record to 2-1 and lowered his earned run average to 2.65 as he pitched the Braves to a 13-4 win over Wareham on July 1 to earn Coca-Cola Pitcher of the Week honors for the week ending July 5. Working the first six innings, Bowen allowed just two singles and a pair of walks while striking out seven Gatemen. In three starts encompassing 17 innings, he has scattered 16 hits, fanned 21 and issued just three bases on balls — this from a pitcher who was 3-6 with a 7.61 ERA in 13 starts for Mississippi State’s 23-33-0 Bulldogs this spring. Bowen was a 38th-round draft choice of the Cincinnati Reds on June 6 and is hoping a strong showing in the Cape League will convince the Reds to make an acceptable offer before the Aug. 15 deadline for signing drafted players. Otherwise, it’s back to Starkville, Miss., to play for new head coach John Cohen next season.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Although he was born in Miami, most Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox fans consider catcher/DH Tony Sanchez to be a “New England kid.” After all, he’s a Boston College standout, who hit .313 this spring and led the Eagles in most major offensive categories, including hits (66), RBI (45), total bases (109) and home runs (9). Picking up where he left off with BC, Sanchez hit his first two home runs of the Cape Cod Baseball League season - both grand slams - and was named Coca-Cola Player of the Week for the week ending July 6. The 6-foot, 220-pound junior-to-be crushed his first grand slam on June 29 as Y-D blanked Orleans, 5-0. It came with one out in the fifth inning and broke open what had been a close, 1-0 game. Four nights later, Sanchez’s first-inning blast with three aboard got the Red Sox off and running as they cruised past Bourne, 10-6. Sanchez is hitting .308 with 12 RBI in 13 games for Y-D. In his two college seasons, Sanchez managed to take first base as a hit batsman on 28 occasions, including a team-leading 18 times in 2008. He’s been hit four times so far to lead Y-D in that category.

COCA COLA PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Chatham’s Sammy Solis is 3,000 miles from home, but the University of San Diego southpaw has adapted well to his summer surroundings. Solis ran his record to 2-0 last Tuesday and remained the only pitcher in the Cape Cod Baseball League with a perfect 0.00 ERA after working 10 or more innings, a performance which earned him Coca-Cola’s Pitcher of the Week honors for the week ending June 28. A sophomore-to-be at San Diego, Solis worked seven innings, allowed just two hits and struck out eight batters as Chatham defeated Wareham, 2-0. In doing so, the 6-4, 215-pound hurler has clearly established himself as the ace of what is otherwise a struggling A’s pitching staff. His perfect earned run average stands in sharp contrast to the team’s last-in-the-league staff ERA.

COCA COLA PLAYER OF THE WEEK
When newly arrived outfielder Corey Olson made his first appearance in the Chatham A’s lineup on June 24, his 1-for-2 performance at the plate was overshadowed by Sammy Solis’s shutout pitching as Chatham beat Wareham, 2-0. But when the week ended, this 5-10, 185-pound native Californian sported an astounding .688 batting average with 11 hits in 16 at-bats and opposing pitchers in the Cape Cod Baseball League were scratching their heads and wondering, “Where did this kid come from?” Well, Olson was a two-time All-Orange Empire outfielder for Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif. He hit .346 and led his team in about a dozen offensive categories last spring to earn an invitation to enter the University of California-Irvine in the fall. Chatham knew it was getting a kid who could hit, but even the A’s management was stunned as their new center-fielder followed his relatively quiet debut with games in which he went 3-for-4, 3-for-4 and 3-for-3 to clinch Coca-Cola Player of the Week honors for the week ending June 28.

FROM NYCBL RELEASE
EASTERN DIVISION PLAYER/PITCHER OF THE WEEK

Player of the Week: Mike Spina (Cincinnati), Amsterdam
Mike Spina batted .500 (8-for-16) as the Mohawks took over first place in the Eastern Division. Spina bashed three home runs, drove in seven runs, recorded three doubles, walked four times and posted a 1.250 slugging percentage. The 2008 Minnesota Twins draft pick (Round 45) had at least one hit and one RBI in all five of Amsterdam’s games. He homered in his first three games of the week. Through nine contests
with the Mohawks, Spina is batting a team-high .480.

Pitcher of the Week: Sean Lucas (Virginia), Saratoga
Sean Lucas is the second-straight reliever to win the Eastern Division Pitcher of the Week award. He went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in two appearances for Saratoga. Lucas allowed two hits in three and two-thirds innings pitched, walked one and struck out five. He threw two scoreless frames against Little Falls on June 25 and struck out four. The Fishkill, N.Y., native held Bennington scoreless in one and two-thirds
innings of relief on June 27. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM NYCBL RELEASE
NYCBL East Division Player of the Week: Mark Onorati (Manhattan), Amsterdam
Mark Onorati batted .500 (8-for-16) and drove in a league-high 11 runs in four games for the Mohawks. He smashed two home runs, scored five runs, stole two bases, collected 15 total bases and recorded a .939 slugging percentage. Onorati had three multi-hit and four multi-RBI games. He tallied at least one hit in all four games and homered in back-to-back contests against Glens Falls and Bennington. Onorati currently leads the league with 16 runs scored and 15 RBI. Read the rest of this entry »

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Right-hander Andrew Carraway (Virginia) pitched the Hyannis Mets to two victories to capture Coca-Cola Pitcher of the Week honors in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the seven-day period ending June 21. Carraway worked the first 51/3 innings to beat Falmouth, 1-0, on Monday, and followed with a five-inning stint and a 4-1 decision over Wareham on Saturday. He did not allow a run in either start and he gave up just seven hits in the 101/3 innings he pitched. Against Falmouth, he struck out seven and did not walk a batter. He whiffed seven more batters against Wareham while issuing a single base on balls. The 6-2, 200-pound junior was picking up right where he left off with the Cavaliers this spring. In 15 appearances spanning 751/3 innings, he struck out 87 and walked only 12. As a sophomore in 2007, he compiled a 5-0 record and led the Cavs in innings pitched by a reliever with 42. Carraway spent the summer of 2007 pitching for the Newport Gulls of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, where he was 3-1 with a 2.19 ERA.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Versatile Nick Liles (Western Carolina) opened his first season in the Cape Cod Baseball League in a manner most players can only dream about. The 6-2, 175-pound infielder/outfielder split his time between right field and third base and ended the week with a league-leading .444 batting average. His outstanding performance resulted in his selection as Coca-Cola Player of the Week for the seven-day period ending June 21. Liles hit safely in every Yarmouth-Dennis game until going 0-for-2 Saturday night at Falmouth (although he was on base twice with walks in that game). He had four multiple-hit games last week, including a 3-for-6 effort against Harwich and a 2-for-4 performance at Wareham in which he also scored twice, drove in three runs and stole three bases as the Red Sox posted a come-from-behind 11-7 victory over the Gatemen. Liles starts the second full week of Cape League play as the league leader in batting average (tied at .444), hits (tied at 10), RBI (7) and stolen bases (6). Last summer, Liles hit .317 for the Florence (S.C.) RedWolves of the Coastal Plains League.

FROM CCBL RELEASE

Coca-Cola Pitcher of the Week

Cotuit starter Nick Hernandes (Tennessee) has something to prove in the Cape Cod Baseball League this summer. He’s coming off a disappointing spring in which he had a losing record (2-5) and a 5.16 ERA with the Volunteers as a sophomore but he turned in an overpowering performance Saturday against a Brewster squad that figures to be in the thick of the East Division race. Hernandes pitched seven strong innings, scattering seven singles and allowing just one run while striking out eight to beat Brewster, 4-1, before more than 3,000 delighted Opening Day fans at Lowell Park. The 6-4, 203-pound left-hander from Miami, Fla., did not walk a batter.

Coca-Cola Player of the Week

Harwich shortstop Tim Smalling (Arkansas) went 3-for-4, scored a run and drove in two to take Coca-Cola Player of the Week honors after the first weekend of Cape Cod Baseball League play. Smalling provided the spark as the Mariners opened the 2008 campaign with a resounding 9-4 win to spoil Bourne’s first-ever night game at Doran Park. The 6-3, 207-pound junior-to-be, one of five Razorbacks playing in the Cape League this summer, picked up where he left off in college with his award-winning effort against Bourne Saturday night. He had five two-RBI performances as well as two three-hit games among his 16 multi-hit games for the Hogs, while also compiling a 14-game hitting streak, Arkansas’ longest of the season.

Lance Baxter, Staunton Braves, LHP, So., Silverhill, Ala. (South Alabama)
Baxter fired a no-hitter in Staunton’s 2-0 victory over Waynesboro on Thursday, July 5. The University of South Alabama lefty faced just one batter over the minimum in his complete-game effort, allowing runners to reach on a walk and an error with one of them picked off. Baxter struck out seven while firing the league’s first no-hitter since Paul Burnside of Winchester threw a perfect game in his first Valley League appearance in June of 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

IRVING, Texas — Roger Kieschnick (Texas Tech) has been named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Player of the Week while Tyler Lyons (Oklahoma State) and Austin Wood (Texas) shared the Pitcher of the Week honor for games of May 12-18 in voting by a media panel. This is the third career honor for Kieschnick, second for Wood and first for Lyons.

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FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

FRISCO, Texas – The Southland Conference Baseball players of the week were named today by the conference office as Texas State junior Lance Loftin claimed his first and team’s third weekly honors. Pitchers Bradley Chovanec of UTSA and Matt Whitaker of Central Arkansas are recognized by league votes as the Co-Pitchers of the week. Chovanec is the first pitcher to win two player of the week awards in the SLC and Whitaker takes home his first and team’s only weekly award of the season.

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FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
DALLAS - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) ­ released the Pro-Line Athletic National Player of the Week awards for the period ending May 11, today. Coastal Carolina junior first baseman David Anderson was named National Hitter of the Week, while Long Beach State senior right-hander Andrew Liebel was named National Pitcher of the Week. The NCBWA Board reviews candidates from each Division I Conference each week and names winners each Tuesday throughout the season. Read the rest of this entry »