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Published: Monday, July 26, 2010

SUMMER BASEBALL
TOP 30 TEAMS
 
Y-D Supplants Cape Rival At No. 1
 
In the five-year history of the PG CrossChecker summer baseball rankings, the Cape Cod League’s Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox are the only team to occupy the No. 1 spot every season.
 
The Red Sox won Cape Cod League championships in 2006 and 2007 to clinch the top spot both years, and were ranked No. 1 deep into the 2008 and 2009 seasons before suffering critical playoff losses that knocked them from the top spot.
 
This season, Y-D has been lurking near the top of the nation’s top 30 all season and finally moved to their accustomed No. 1 spot on the eve of the annual Cape Cod League all-star game (Wednesday at Boston’s Fenway Park). For the Red Sox to move into the top position, it took a four-game winning streak on their part that coincided with a four-game losing stretch by the Brewster Whitecaps, their counterparts in the Cape’s Eastern Division.
 
Brewster had been No. 1 since the outset of the 2010 summer season, and still have the most points in the Cape Cod standings (44, to 42 for Y-D), but have played two more games than Y-D. The loss of Louisiana State righthander Anthony Ranaudo, who did not allow an earned run in five starts for Brewster, was a crushing blow for the suddenly reeling Whitecaps.
 
Ranaudo was expected to be one of the top two or three picks in the 2010 draft, but encountered elbow problems in the spring at LSU and slid to the sandwich round, where he was selected by the Boston Red Sox. He spent time in the Cape this summer to demonstrate he was healthy, and cleared proved that, though his early departure left a huge void in the Brewster rotation.
 
Y-D lost its own ace in Stanford lefthander Brett Mooneyham (3-0, 3.18), a projected first-rounder in 2011, who left after four starts to join Team USA’s college national team. But the Red Sox have gotten steady performances from a number of quality arms, and added Fresno State first baseman Jordan Ribera (.234-5-17), the nation’s home run leader, to bolster their offense. Ribera was available when he went undrafted in June.
 
Brewster slipped to No. 5 in the latest rankings, but will be expected to give Y-D all it can handle in the Cape Cod League playoffs, which begin Aug. 6.
 
Meanwhile, the nation’s No. 2-3-4 teams (the Santa Barbara Foresters of the California Collegiate League; the Alaska Goldpanners and the MINK League’s Sedalia Bombers) are expected to settle things on the field at the 76^th annual National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, scheduled to start Friday and continue through Aug. 13.
 
With six championships, the No. 3 Goldpanners are the most successful team in NBC history, though the No. 2 Foresters have enjoyed more success than any club in the last decade. No. 4 Sedalia (35-8) should give both teams a run after rolling through the MINK League this summer.
 
The Goldpanners, a perennial NBC power until a recent slide, have had a significant reawakening under former San Diego State coach Jim Dietz, 74, who coached the Goldpanners (31-10) to four NBC titles in five years from 1972-76. Dietz rejoined the team this year after more than 30 years.
 
PG CrossChecker’s ranking of summer league clubs is compiled in conjunction with the summer-league website,www.summercollegebaseball.net. The nation’s top 30 summer-league teams will be ranked each week. An emphasis is placed on the league’s competitive level, the prospective professional-quality talent on each club, a team’s won-loss record and its league dominance in arriving at the rankings. Each club must have at least a .500 record to be eligible.