Wolverines Go Coast to Coast for Summer Competition
8/7/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Brauer and junior-to-be catcher Jake Fox (Greenfield, Ind./Indianapolis Cathedral HS) led the charge to the East Coast for the Wolverines.
Brauer's nine-inning no-hitter, the first in the Cape Cod League since 1998, helped him move his record for the playoff-bound, second-place Red Sox to 3-2 with a 1.28 ERA. Brauer had 14 strikeouts in the "no-no" to move his season totals to 58 in 49.1 innings, one shy of the league strikeout lead.
Brauer, a member of the Red Sox in both 2001 and 2002, has helped Yarmouth-Dennis to the Cape Cod League playoffs for the second straight season. Fox was hitting .250 with 10 doubles and 18 RBI.
For the second straight season Michigan had three players on the Torrington (Conn.) Twisters roster in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.
Fifth-year senior 1B Mike Sokol (Sterling Heights, Mich./DeLaSalle HS) hit .271 for the third-place Twisters (22-20) and led the team with nine doubles and 25 walks.
Other Michigan Twisters included senior CF Blake Rutkowski (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South HS), the team leader with 10 stolen bases (10 attempts), and junior OF Brandon Roberts (Arlington, Texas/Martin HS), who hit .270 with four doubles and three triples in his second season with the squad.
Wolverines on the West Coast included senior infielder Jordan Cantalamessa (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) playing with junior LHP Chad Garson (Calabasas, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) for the San Francisco Seals in the California Central League.
Senior Brock Koman (Pueblo, Colo./South HS), a preseason All-American candidate at 3B in 2002 before playing shortstop most of the season for the Wolverines, hit .267 with six doubles in a short stint with the Aloha Knights in the Pacific International League.
Joining Koman with the Knights in Portland, Ore., was sophomore to be RHP Matt Collins (Bloomfield Village, Mich./Country Day School). Collins was 0-2 out of the bullpen but hit .333 in limited action at shortstop as the club finished second in the division with a 17-13 record.
Senior OF Gino Lollio (Cape Coral, Fla./Mariner HS) returned to the Alexandria (Minn.) Beetles in the Northwoods League and picked up where he left off last season as an all-star. In fact, Lollio knocked in the lone run for the North all-star squad in a game lost 2-1 when the host South scored both runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Lollio was hitting .242 with nine doubles, three homers and 23 RBI for the Beetles and leading the team with 15 stolen bases. Lollio had a walk-off homer to beat the Wisconsin Woodchucks, the defending league champion and a team with its own U-M flavor.
The Woodchucks, based in Wausau, Wis., are coached by former Michigan assistant coach Steve Foster and three Wolverines have seen action on the team this summer, including fifth-year senior 1B Nate Wright (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew HS), senior IF/OF Dan Augustine (Wausau, Wis./West HS) and senior catcher Jason Wuerfel (Cedar, Mich./Glen Lake HS).
Wright, a teammate of Lollio's a year ago with the Beetles, was hitting .259, while Wuerfel was a late-season addition after playing in the Lansing Wood Bat League. Wuerfel hit .304 with 24 hits, 13 walks and six stolen bases while playing for the Guerro Gloves along with Wolverine teammate senior/junior OF Eric Esper (Grand Ledge, Mich./Grand Ledge HS).
Players staying closer to home were sophomores OF Matt Butler (Glendale Heights, Ill./Driscoll Catholic HS) with the Lombard Orioles in the Illinois Suburban League and the Wisconsin State League, SS Nick Rudden (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek HS) with the Colorado Sox in Denver, RHP Phil Tognetti (Newhall, Calif./Hart HS) playing for the San Fernando Rockies and OF Chris Burhans (Alpharetta, Ga./The Marist School) with the Athens (Ga.) Pirates. Burhans hit .319 with 36 hits, four homers and 20 RBI for the Pirates.
The Wolverines were well represented in the Livonia Collegiate Wood Bat League with redshirt IF Brent Nunez (Dearborn, Mich./Divine Child HS) playing for the second-place Michigan Rams while junior-to-be RHP Bobby Garza (Southgate, Mich./Anderson HS) and redshirt RHP Matt Campbell (Paw Paw, Mich./Paw Paw HS) were members of the starting rotation for the third place D.C.I. (Decision Consultants Inc.) team that included redshirt LHP Ali Husain (Ann Arbor, Mich./Ypsilanti HS) in the bullpen. Campbell was 4-1 for D.C.I.
Redshirt freshman catcher Jeff Kunkel (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest HS) was hitting .298 for the Lima Locos of the Great Lakes League.
Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423
