Harwich Remains Nation’s Top Team, But Plenty of Contenders Are Lurking

The Cape Cod League’s Harwich Mariners remain the nation’s top-ranked summer-league team for the third week in a row, but there are plenty of teams lining up to bump the Mariners from their perch if they should falter over the course of the summer.

Chief among them is the Orleans Firebirds, Harwich’s Eastern Division rival in the Cape Cod League. The Firebirds boast the same 12-3 record and rank No. 2 nationally in Perfect Game’s ranking of the top 30 teams for the second straight week.

Orleans’ chances of overtaking Harwich, though, took another hit on Friday when closer Trevor Gott (Kentucky), who led the Cape in saves a year ago and had saved four more games this season, hurt his shoulder and was forced to leave the team. The severity of the injury is unclear.

It was the second major loss to the Orleans pitching staff in little more than a week as Arizona State righthander Trevor Williams, a potential first-rounder in the 2013 draft, left the Firebirds to join USA Baseball’s college national team.

In the meantime, Harwich has only added talent to its roster since the start of the 2012 season, and ran off a recent streak of nine wins in a row. Outfielder Phil Ervin, a rising junior at Samford, has been the dominant player for the Mariners from the outset, hitting .364 with a Cape-best eight homers and 16 RBIs, but the late additions of Stanford outfielder Austin Wilson and Louisiana State righthander Aaron Nola may have separated Harwich, the defending Cape Cod League champion, from Orleans—or any team in summer baseball.

The 6-foot-5, 245-pound Wilson hit just .204 for the Mariners in 2011, but was hitting .355-5-12 in his first nine games and displaying the kind of all-around raw talent that will make him one of the top candidates to go No. 1 overall in the 2013 draft. Nola (2-0, 0.82 in his first two starts) may be the top prospect in the Cape this summer in the 2014 draft class.

Among those teams expected to give Harwich and Orleans a run for the No. 1 ranking in the country are a number of equally-hot clubs in various leagues around the country, notably the No. 3-ranked Wenatchee AppleSox (18-3) of the West Coast League, No. 4-ranked Mankato MoonDogs (25-7) of the Northwoods League, No. 5-ranked Keene Swamp Bats (14-4) of the New England College League, No. 6-ranked Amsterdam Mohawks (19-3) of the Perfect Game Collegiate League and No. 7-ranked East Texas Pump Jacks (21-4) of the Texas Collegiate League.

All have capitalized on early season hot streaks to surge into the top 10 nationally. With 18 wins in its last 19 games, achieved largely on the strength of a dominant young pitching staff, Amsterdam may be the hottest team in the country.

Led by Harwich and Orleans, a total of six teams from the Cape Cod League, acknowledged as the nation’s most-prestigious summer-college league, occupy spots in Perfect Game’s Top 30 ranking. The Coastal Plain, Northwoods and Valley leagues all have three teams ranked.

Teams are ranked on the following criteria: won-loss record, league dominance, depth and quality of professional-level talent and the overall strength of the league. To receive consideration, teams must have at least a .500 record overall.