Matt Goisman| Cape Cod Times
Not even a pandemic could throw off Team Cape Cod’s supremacy in the New England Region of the Senior Babe Ruth summer baseball league. The team defeatedthe host PNJ All-Stars 4-0 in the New England finals Monday at Tivnan Field in Worcester,winning for the 11thtime in the last 13 tournaments, and 12thtime under head coach Dan Proto.
Up next: a return to Mobile, Ala., for the Babe Ruth World Series starting July 31. Team Cape Cod is very familiar with Mobile, having finished second in the nationtherein 2019.
"We’re playing to represent Cape Cod, which is really cool,” Proto said.“They gelled so fast. It’s actually impressive, because there are a lot of different schools on this roster.”
Casey Proto, Dan’s younger of two sons, dominated on the mound for TCC. He gave up a single in the first inning andalmost nothing after thatMonday, striking out eight and walking just two in a seven-inning complete game.
"I was really just focused on keeping the ball low, getting ground balls,” Casey Proto said. “I was really focused on getting done what we needed to get done.”
CaseyProto and Andrew Nordman are TCC’s only two current players who competed at Nationals two years ago, when the team lost to the host AlabamaRawdogsin the finals. The 2019 squad lost multiple players to graduation, and several more vets left in 2020,when TCC competed locally but didn’t have a regional or national tournament to play for due to the pandemic.
Caseyisn’t planning to play baseball at UMass next year, meaning the World Series could be the final games of his career.
"My age group as seniors … we lost a lot this year, so this is something exciting that we can look forward to,” Casey said. “We allknow that’s the ultimate goal, so there’s definitely a little more intensity.”
Casey’s career may end in two weeks, but Nordman’s won’t. Nordman played for Sandwich High School as a freshman in 2018 before transferring to the Tilton School in New Hampshire, and will play for UMass Boston next year.
Nordman drove in the first of two runs in the bottom of the first inning with a sacrifice fly on Monday, and TCC never looked back.He added an RBI double in the second inning and finished 2-for-4.
Ethan Keeney and Noah Clarke (2-for-3) doubled for one last run in the third.
"It was a great team win, a great tournament, a great weekend for the boys,” Nordman said. “The win against Worcester (PNJ) onSaturday, 7-6, we came back in the bottom of the seventh,glued the whole team together.”
Sam Parks (3-for-4) scored on both of Nordman’s RBIs. Parks is a Marion native who graduated from Tabor Academy and will play for Division I Bryant University nextyear in Rhode Island.
He discovered TCC last year, when several Tabor Academy players formed a team to compete in the Cape Cod Babe Ruth League. Parks said the plan was just to get in some extra competition after their spring season was canceled, butinstead he began chatting with Dan Proto and discovered TCC would be a good fit.
"I didn’t want to play club again really, because it’s more showcase baseball, and since I’d committed, I had no need to showcase myself,” Parks said. “I’m a really, really competitive guy, so I was looking for baseball with a meaning. To go out and actually play for something and go out and try to compete and have an end goal that we hopefully can reach, it’s been perfect.”
Parks may be new to TCC, but he grew up competing againstmany of its players.He said watching Casey pitch Monday reminded him of their battles back in Little League.
"I remember Casey used to shut us down whenever he pitched,” Parks said. “We’d go into it (thinking), ‘Ah, Proto’s pitching. We’re screwed.’”
Of Proto’s performance Monday, Parks added, “He absolutely chucked. It was awesome.”
Finding Parks is just one of the ways the 2020 season has paid off in 2021. It might have been a shortened season with no postseason glory, but Dan Proto said it gaveyounger players extra playing time and experience.
Catcher Mike Meagherisa perfect example of this. Meagher replaced 2019 catcher Ryan Proto, Dan’s older son who’s now playing for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in the Cape Cod Baseball League, andDan said Meagher was absolutely critical to Casey’s success Monday.
“He was unbelievable, from his pitch-calling to his blocks to Casey’s trust in him,” Dan Proto said. “It was like watching these two kids play video games. They were just in total control.”
Casey had the same take on his catcher. The two have been batterymates for years, each earning Cape & Islands League Atlantic all-star honorsasBarnstableseniorsduring the spring.
"He knows what he likes to throw in different counts, and I know what he likes to call, so I hardly ever shake him off,” Casey Proto said. “Most of the time, what he puts down is exactly what I was thinking.”
The 10 World Series teams will be divided into two pools of five. Each team will play each other team in its pool once, for a total of four pool play games over the first four daysat Hank Aaron Stadium, and thenthe top teams will advance to a single-elimination playoff bracket culminating in an Aug.7 championship.
This will be a new experience for many ofTCC’splayers, but one they’re sure to remember.
"Every year I wonder how much longer I can do it, and then I get to these types of seasons,” Dan Proto said. “It’s fun to watch, and I still enjoy it.”
Contact MattGoismanat mgoisman@capecodonline.com
