Summer ball schedules continue to dwindle into mid-August, but many title runs are just beginning.

In Cape Cod, the semifinals are underway as the Harwich Mariners defeated the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, 6-0, in Game One of their series Tuesday night. Nick Routt, a rising senior southpaw from Mississippi State, carved through the Y-D bats, firing seven innings, yielding six hits and striking out four to give Harwich a one-game lead.

The Mariners scored eight times in the first three innings during their two quarterfinal wins against Brewster and got on the board early again in the second round. Harwich scored five runs in the game’s initial two frames, which allowed Routt to settle into a groove. Speedsters Ronnie Richardson and Darnell Sweeney, teammates at Central Florida, and rising Georgia Tech senior Jake Davies, started the game with consecutive singles to put Harwich on top 2-0 after the first inning. Richardson—a 31st-round pick by the Cubs this year—and Sweeney—the Golden Knights’ everyday shortstop— then knocked in a pair of unearned runs in the second, including a Sweeney triple.

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UC Davis has promoted associate head coach Matt Vaughn to head coach, replacing Rex Peters, who left for a job on the UCLA coaching staff after nine seaons at the helm of the Aggies' program. Vaughn, a UC Davis pitcher from 1989-92, has spent the last 19 years on the Aggies coaching staff under former head coach Phil Swimley and Peters.

Vaughn helped Peters lead the Aggies from Division II to D-I, where they reached a regional in their first year of eligibility in 2008.

"It's not easy to leave UC Davis," Peters said in a release. "I've seen this program grow tremendously and I'm very proud of everything we've accomplished. The program is in good hands and I know Matt will continue to build a competitive Big West baseball program. He's ready and it will be a smooth transition for both current and future Aggies."

Vaughn, who was elevated to associate head coach in 2007, has coached 15 pitchers who went on to sign professional contracts during his time as Davis' pitching coach.

"I'm very excited," Vaughn said in the release. "I can help this program be successful and I'm excited to have the position. I've been at UC Davis my whole career, and one of the reasons for that is the outstanding student-athletes we are able to attract here. I've had the opportunity for 24 years to work with incredible people and I look forward to doing more of that."

As we welcome in August, we also begin to wave farewell to summer baseball.

The NECBL playoffs began on Wednesday, featuring the top four teams from the Eastern and Western divisions. Each group will fight amongst itself with a pair of three-game series’ to decide who will emerge for the interdivisional championship series set for next week.

The NECBL regular season was one of the closest races in years as four teams in the Western Division—the Keene Swamp Bats, Holyoke Blue Sox, Vermont Mountaineers, and Danbury Westerners—finished within three games of the top seed. Keene and Holyoke tied for first place, each holding 28-14 records, but Keene earned home-field advantage throughout the Western playoffs thanks to a 4-2 head-to-head record.

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UCLA took its time replacing Rick Vanderhook on its coaching staff after he left to take the head job at Cal State Fullerton, but the Bruins have finally found their man, and it was worth the wait. Baseball America has learned that UCLA has hired UC Davis head coach Rex Peters as an assistant, though an official announcement is not expected until the middle of August.

Peters, like Vanderhook, played for Cal State Fullerton, where he helped lead the Titans to the College World Series in 1988. After his professional playing career ended, Peters joined the coaching staff at Division III Chapman (Calif.), where he went on to spend nine years as the head coach, leading the Panthers to the D-III College World Series three times. In 2003, he led UC Davis to the Division II postseason for the first time since 1995. And in 2008, Peters guided the Aggies to the Division I NCAA tournament in their first season of eligibility after transitioning from D-II.

Associate head coach Matt Vaughn, a Davis alumnus who has spent 19 years on the coaching staff there, seems like the favorite to succeed Peters as the Aggies' head coach.

CHATHAM, Mass.—After taking in the Cape Cod League all-star game at Fenway Park on Friday, I stuck around to catch some more action around the Cape. Here are some observations from the final week of the league's regular season.

• Stony Brook dominated the America East Conference this spring, going 22-2 to win the league by four games and finishing the regular season 41-10 overall. The Seawolves were upset in the AEC tournament, ending their season shy of regionals, but a number of Seawolves have made noise in the Cape League. Three Stony Brook players made the league's all-star game, including catcher Patrick Cantwell and center fielder Travis Jankowksi of Bourne, who started for the West team.

Two Seawolves led Orleans to the East Division title on Wednesday, the last day of the regular season. All-star righthander Tyler Johnson allowed just one hit over 6 2/3 scoreless innings to get the win in the first game of a doubleheader against Chatham, clinching the division. Johnson pitches primarily off a mid-80s sinker with serious life, and he effectively mixed in a slider and changeup.

"When I've got all three pitches working, especially with these kind of defensive guys behind me, it makes it real easy to pitch," Johnson said. "I just like to throw that (sinker), let it do its thing and get some ground balls." [...] Continue Reading »

The NCAA has released a chart showing how the new Ratings Percentage Index formula would have affected every Division I team in 2011. The chart shows each team's actual 2011 RPI ranking, and where it would have ranked under the new formula, which weights road victories as 1.3 wins and home victories as 0.7 wins. The new formula only affects the 25 percent of the RPI that considers a team's actual win-loss record; the other 75 percent is effectively just a team's strength of schedule (its opponents' winning percentage is 50 percent, and its opponents' opponents' winning percentate is 25 percent). That part of the formula does not change.

As you can see, the teams at the top are largely unaffected by the new formula. In the following charts, the number in parentheses is a team's actual 2011 RPI ranking, and the number after the colon is its adjusted RPI ranking using the new formula.

THE TOP 10
(1) North Carolina: 1
(2) Virginia: 2
(3) Florida: 4
(4) Vanderbilt: 3
(5) Florida State: 5
(6) South Carolina: 6
(7) Clemson: 7
(8) Georgia Tech: 8
(9) Arizona State: 10
(10) Texas A&M: 9 [...] Continue Reading »