Newport Moves to No. 1 Spot
Following Demise of Cape Teams

All season long, the defending champion Harwich Mariners dominated the Cape Cod League’s Eastern Division. Meanwhile, a prolific second-half surge propelled the Cotuit Kettleers, the Cape’s 2011 champs, to the league’s best overall record and a runaway title in the Western Division.

But both the Mariners and Kettleers, who have occupied the No. 1 spot in Perfect Game’s weekly ranking of the nation’s top 30 summer-league teams for all but one week this summer, unexpectedly bit the dust in the opening round of the Cape League playoffs. Harwich was bounced in two straight by Orleans, while Cotuit fell in three games to Bourne.

The demise of the two Cape powers opened the door for a new No. 1 team in the current rankings and the New England Collegiate League’s Newport Gulls surged into the top spot. The Gulls, the only other team to rank No. 1 this summer, recaptured the top spot by sweeping impressively to the NECBL title, their fifth in 12 years.

The Gulls (37-11 overall) dominated regular-season play in the NECBL, winning the Eastern Division in easy fashion, and closed out the campaign in style by going 6-1 in beating Sanford, New Bedford and Danbury in the league’s eight-team playoffs.

Newport’s chances of finishing the 2012 season in the top spot are considered strong as only a handful of the nation’s top summer leagues are still engaged in playoffs. Additionally, both No. 2-ranked Amsterdam, winners of the Perfect Game Collegiate League championship, and No. 3-ranked Santa Barbara Foresters, winners of their second straight National Baseball Congress World Series title, have also completed their seasons.

Among those teams still legitimately in the chase for No. 1 are the No. 4-ranked La Crosse Loggers, which opens the Northwoods League playoffs today with the most wins (49) in summer baseball, and the No. 5-ranked Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, second-place finishers to Harwich in the Cape Cod League’s Eastern Division and winners of a first-round playoff series against Chatham.

Had Cotuit (30-14 in the regular season) continued its hot pace in post-season play and won its second Cape League title in three years, it might have been difficult for any other summer club to overtake the Kettleers in the chase for No. 1. But it has been five years since the last Cape team with the best regular-season record went on and captured the league playoffs, and the Kettleers became the latest Cape team to see a potential No. 1 national ranking slip from its grasp by falling short of expectations in the playoffs.

Teams in Perfect Game’s Top 30 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.

The final ranking of the top 30 teams will be unveiled next Monday, once every summer league has completed its 2012 season.