Commodores Season Preview

With baseball returning to big-league cities across the country on Thursday and Friday and the college season already going strong, Falmouth residents and regular visitors know that opening day on the Cape can't be far behind. When the 2011 Cape Cod Baseball League season begins on June 10, the Falmouth Commodores will have every reason to believe they can match or better their second-place Western Division finish in 2010.

Some of the most promising prospects from colleges across the country come to the Cape to play their summer ball each year, and Falmouth will have its fair share in 2011. Returning Commodores Barrett Barnes, Kyle Von Tungeln and Christian Jones will lead a squad featuring some of the best young pitchers and position players in college baseball.

Jones, Falmouth's Pitcher of the Year and a Cape League All-Star in 2010, finished the season with a 2.36 ERA, holding opponents to a .177 batting average. He'll lead a staff that includes Ty Blach of Creighton and Josh Easley of NC State, both sophomores in 2011.

Blach led his team in ERA as a freshman last season, posting a 3.11 mark, and held opponents to a .231 average. Easley has experience with summer ball, pitching to a 3.59 ERA while notching 53 strikeouts in his 47.2 innings for the McKinney Marshalls of the Texas Collegiate League. His work there, and at Weatherford High School, got him drafted by the New York Mets not once but twice, first in 2009, then again a year later.

Barnes hit .233 for the Commodores in 2010, but showed some power, swatting three home runs and leading the team with 24 RBI. If his college production is any indication, Barnes may be due for a big step forward in his Cape League numbers this year. He was the Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year in 2010, leading Texas Tech in a range of offensive categories, including average (.341), home runs (14), total bases (139), and on-base plus slugging (a ridiculous 1.106).

Other collegiate heavy hitters who will hoist the wooden bats for Falmouth this year include Jantzen Witte, Ross Hefley, Max White, and Jeremy Baltz. Von Tungeln's teammate at TCU, Witte led the Frogs with a .374 average in 2010 as a red shirt freshman. Heffley hit .361 as a sophomore at Western Carolina last year, with 11 home runs and 63 RBI. White struck 15 homers for Oklahoma as a freshman in 2010. Baltz, also a freshman that year, led St. John's in average (.396), home runs (24), and slugging percentage (.771).

The Commodores begin the 2011 CCBL season at Brewster, and open their home schedule at Guv Fuller Field on Sunday, June 12, hosting Chatham in a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m.