ECU baseball players take to the Cape

Once the dusty road to Omaha ends for teams across the nation, college baseball players venture to various parts of the U.S. to play in wood bat summer baseball leagues.

From the Coastal Plain League, Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League or the historic Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), players get selected to teams and leagues and spend their summers playing baseball.

The CCBL is the most prestigious of the summer wood bat leagues.

The League recently began its 125th season. It also plays host to the best college baseball players in America every year on its 10 different teams.

Centered in the state of Massachusetts, the league has teams in the cities of Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Cotuit, Falmouth, Harwich, Hyannis, Orleans, Wareham and South Yarmouth.

After one of the best seasons in ECU baseball history, which saw the Diamond Bucs post a record of 46-20 and advance to the Super Regionals, there is a record number of Pirates taking part in the prestigious CCBL this summer.

Trent Whitehead, Seth Maness, Dustin Harrington, Kevin Brandt, Kyle Roller and Devin Harris have all been selected to join teams in the Cape Cod.

Being selected to the CCBL is no small task.

Cape Cod general managers, scouts and coaches only select the top players from universities coast to coast to join the league.

Only three Pirates (Trent Ashcraft, Stephen Batts and Kyle Roller) were selected to participate in the Cape Cod last summer.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity," said Brandt. "Not just everyone gets to go up and play in the Cape, so when I was told that I was invited up there I jumped on the opportunity."

Brandt had a stellar freshman season for the Pirates posting a 9-2 record and earning two freshman All-American honors.

Whitehead and Harrington joined Brandt this summer on the Hyannis Mets roster. This trio of Pirates is venturing into the Cape for the first time and it is a unique experience to be on the same team as one of your collegiate teammates.

"It is going to be fun," Brandt said. "Players like Trent and Dustin are fun guys to play with. We all had a great time this year in school ball and I'm looking forward to carrying this fun up to the cape with these guys."

Conference USA first team All Conference selections Seth Maness and Kyle Roller joined the Bourne Braves.

Maness followed up his All-American freshman year with another stellar season going 9-3 with a 4.71 ERA while Roller batted .336 with 16 homeruns for the Pirates.

After being selected in the eighth round by the Baltimore Orioles in this year's MLB Amateur Draft, Devin Harris joined the Cotuit Kettleers while he continues contract negotiations with the Orioles.

The opportunity for pitchers such as Brandt and Maness to face some of the best hitters in the nation during the offseason helps in their development as players. There is also the bonus of facing some of your collegiate teammates who you see every day during the school year.

"It is going to be fun playing against some of my teammates," Maness said. "Hopefully I will get to pitch against Dustin and Trent because they are playing on a different team. I know that facing this kind of competition will be a great experience and it can only make me better in the long run."

With the season underway in the Cape, all of the Pirates are working hard to improve their game.

Adjusting to swinging a wood bat is tough for college baseball players and, with it still being early in the season, many of ECU's players are struggling at the plate thus far.

The hero earlier this month in the Greenville Regional Championship against South Carolina when he tied the game in the ninth inning with a two-run homerun and drove in the game winning run in the bottom of the tenth, Harris has yet to find his grove in the CCBL.

Currently he is batting .77 in 13 at bats, earning only one hit so far.

Harrington is hitting .222 in 18 at bats while Whitehead is batting .211 with an on base percentage of .348.

Kyle Roller is leading current Pirates and the Bourne Braves in batting average and RBIs, hitting .429 with 7 RBI. Roller had a career day on Saturday going 4-4 with two home runs. The Richmond county product was named Cape Cod player of the week this past week.

The Pirate pitchers are having similar success as Roller with Brandt throwing 2.2 innings allowing one hit and no runs.

This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.