The success of the Binghamton Mets over the past two seasons was on display last week when rosters were announced for the Futures Game July 13 at Target Field in Minnesota.
One current and one former B-Met were selected for the U.S. team that will take on a World team in the game for the top prospects in all of the Minor Leagues. Teams are split according to whether players were born in the United States.
Current Binghamton catcher Kevin Plawecki and former Binghamton pitcher Noah Syndergaard are part of the team.
The game is played two days before the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at the same site.
Plawecki, a 23-year-old from Carmel, Ind., was a first-round draft pick by the Mets in 2012 after earning Big Ten Player of the Year honors at Purdue. In his first season in Binghamton, Plawecki was eighth in the Eastern League with a .328 average along with 18 doubles, six home runs and 43 RBI in 55 games at the time of the selection.
Syndergaard was slected for the second straight season. He is 6-4 with a 4.98 earned run average and 67 strikeouts in 65 innings at Class AAA Las Vegas.
With Binghamton last season, Syndergaard went 6-1 with a 3.00 ERA in 11 starts and 54 innings while striking out 69 and walking just 12. The 21-year-old is a 6-foot-6, right-hander from Mansfield, Texas.
Boston Red Sox prospect Mookie Betts, who has displayed his talents in Binghamton and Moosic this season while playing for the Portland Sea Dogs in the Class AA Eastern League and Pawtucket Red Sox in the Class AAA International League, was selected for the U.S. team before being promoted to Boston Saturday. Betts, who moved from second base to center field during the season to try to get him ready for Boston, is batting .346 with 28 stolen bases.
The United States has won the last four games, including 4-2 last year in New York.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Susquehanna Sabers two-way starter and special teams standout Brett Hepler, a Blue Ridge student going into his senior year, has been named one of the five fullbacks to watch in District 2 football for the 2014 season by www.northeastpafootball.com.
Hepler was recognized along with Wyoming Valley West’s Bill Davison, North Pocono’s Tyler Musgrave, Nanticoke’s Alec Norton and Lakeland’s Christian Selvenis. He joins teammate Austin White, who was listed as one of District 2’s five quarterbacks to watch for the upcoming season.
As a junior, Hepler was named as a second-team Lackawanna Football Conference Division III all-star by the website at both fullback and punter while also playing well in the defensive backfield.
Hepler averaged 8.3 yards per carry while finishing second on the Sabers with 586 yards rushing last season. He averaged 34.1 yards while placing 14 of his 30 punts inside the opponent’s 20. Hepler also led the team in tackles with 60 and ranked third in assists with 43 while intercepting two passes and breaking up five others.
In other high school football news, the 80th annual Dream Game, scheduled for July 30, has been moved to Valley View’s John Henzes Memorial Stadium in Peckville because of construction at Scranton Memorial Stadium.
In other scholastic sports, the District 2 committee, at its final meeting of the 2013-14 school year, determined that it would continue the current policy and would once again not be conducting junior high championships in the 2014-15 school year.
In college baseball, two District 2 graduates led the University of Virginia baseball team to within one run of winning its first College World Series title.
Joe McCarthy, a sophomore right fielder from Scranton, batted clean-up and Mike Papi, a junior first baseman from Tunkhannock, batted third for the Cavaliers.
Virginia fell to Vanderbilt, 3-2, in Wednesday night’s championship game. The teams had split the first two games of the best-of-three final.
Papi and McCarthy both scored in the three-run sixth and two-run seventh innings when Virginia erased a 2-1 deficit to win the second game, 7-2. Vanderbilt took the title with a pair of one-run victories.
McCarthy was 4-for-10 with a double, two walks, a hit by pitch, four runs scored and an RBI in the three-game series. He hit .261 for the six games of the World Series and .283 for the NCAA Tournament.
Papi, who was selected in the first round of this year’s Major League Baseball Draft by the Cleveland Indians, was 2-for-10 with two walks, a sacrifice and three runs scored in the three-game final. He batted .273 for the World Series and .383 for the NCAA Tournament.
Both McCarthy and Papi started all 70 games to help Virginia go 54-16 and were two of the team’s three .300 hitters.
McCarthy batted .301 and led the team in hits (77) and stolen bases (11). He was ACC Freshman of the Year last season.
Papi, a two-time, first-team all-Atlantic Coast Conference all-star, led the ACC with 11 home runs and set a team record with 61 walks this season. He batted .307 and drove in 56 runs. As a sophomore, Papi batted .381 to win the ACC batting title and earn first-team All-America honors.
In minor-league baseball, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders gained ground on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in the IronRail Trophy series with consecutive wins Saturday and Sunday in Allentown.
Rob Refsnyder, who is hitting .356 through his first 18 games with the team, had an inside-the-park homer in Saturday’s 4-3 win.
Zoilo Almonte hit his 11th home run and finished with four RBIs in Sunday’s 6-5 victory.
The RailRiders improved to 4-6 on the season series.
Dilson Herrera continued his strong start for Binghamton.
The 20-year-old outfielder went 4-for-5 with a homer and five RBIs Saturday night to lead an 8-7 win in Altoona.
Herrera, who was selected for the Eastern League all-star game for his play with St. Lucie, was batting .389 with nine RBI and seven runs scored through his first nine games with the B-Mets.
WEEK AHEAD
Binghamton plays the first of four straight games in four days against the Eastern League-leading Portland Sea Dogs Monday, July 7 at NYSEG Stadium at 6:35 p.m.
The Mets are second in the Eastern Division behind the Sea Dogs.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.
“CARELESS” KESELOWSKI WINS AT KENTUCKY
SPARTA, Ken.—Friday night Brad Keselowski lost his cool, and was penalized for speeding on pit road during the Nationwide race. His actions probably cost him a win.
But in Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race Keselowski maintained his composure and put on a flawless performance. He started from the pole, led 7 times for 199 laps of the 267-lap race, and crossed the finish line over 1-second ahead of runner-up driver Kyle Busch, for his second win of the season.
"Careless" Keselowski Wins at Kentucky
“It’s kind of one of those races where you’ve got a really great car and you are waiting for something to go wrong,” said Keselowski. “I think this is what we need to do if we’re to have a shot at another championship.”
But Keselowski’s on track luck didn’t hold in Victory Lane.
He cut his hand while breaking a bottle of champagne. Team photos and interviews had to wait as Keselowski was sent to the infield care center to get stitches in his bloody right hand.
Keselowski was leading the race when he pitted for fresh tires on lap 216. Unlike Friday night, he maintained a proper pit road speed. He was in the seventh position when racing resumed. Kyle Busch jumped out front and held on until Keselowski passed him with 20 laps remaining.
“I tried to get as much of a lead as I could, because I knew Brad was coming,” said Busch. “The car was loose there at the end, and I tried not to over drive it. It wasn’t a win, but it was a big gain for us.”
It seems like the outside retaining wall took quite a few licks. Denny Hamlin was the first to hit it on lap 29. His car was totaled and he was the first driver out of the race.
On lap 77, Kyle Larson smacked it, and was also done for the night. During lap 154 Jamie McMurray got caught up in a wreck that involved Aric Almirola. David Stremme hit it on lap 171, and Almirola tagged it for the second time on lap 175.
Ryan Newman finished third for his best performance of the season.
“It’s a big plus for us,” said Newman. “This was our first top-5, and it feels pretty good. We were running good there at the end and I was careful not to screw up.”
Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, and Jimmie Johnson were the remaining top-10 finishers.
Top-16 Chase leaders after 17 of 35: 1. Gordon-618, 2. Johnson-594, 3. Earnhardt-594, 4. Keselowski-560, 5. Kenseth-555, 6. Edwards-536, 7. Logano-519, 8. Newman-514, 9. Harvick-509, 10. Kyle Busch-508, 11. Menard-488, 12. Larson-474, 13. Biffle-474, 14. Bowyer-473, 15. Kahne-465, 16. Stewart-460.
“HAPPY’ HARVICK WINS ON LATE PASS
Kevin Harvick passed Kyle Busch with five laps to go, and then held off a mistake-prone Brad Keselowski to win Saturday night’s Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway.
“We made a lot of mistakes,” said Harvick. “All in all it was a very strange night. This is a frustrating place to race. We made a lot of adjustments, and one time we had a bad set of tires, but at the end we showed we had a winning car.”
Except for a pit road speeding penalty, Keselowski might have been the driver celebrating in victory lane. Instead, he had to settle for second.
Keselowski started on the pole, led 138 laps of the 200-lap race, but during a pit stop on lap 149 he was caught for speeding. After serving a pass-through penalty assessed by NASCAR, Keselowski was 17th.
Three additional caution flags helped him make it back to the front of the field of cars. He passed the second-place car of Kyle Busch on lap 196, but could not catch Harvick before the checkered flag was given, four laps later.
“I got in a hurry and made a mistake that cost us the race,” said Keselowski. “We had a great car and I definitely put us behind and was just one spot away from catching back up.”
For the second week in a row, Kyle Busch was near the front at the end of the race, but couldn’t pull off a win, and finished third.
“We didn’t have the car to beat so we shouldn’t be upset with a third, but there at the end we had the opportunity to win the race,” said Busch. “He (Kevin Harvick) just flat drove right by me on the restart,” said Busch.
Paul Menard was fourth, followed by Ryan Blaney, Brendan Gaughan, Ty Dillon, Brian Scott, Kyle Larson, and Elliott Sadler.
Top-10 leaders after 15 of 33: 1. Sadler-541, 2. Elliott-537, 3. Smith-513, 4. T. Dillon-512, 5. Scott-494, 6. Bayne-482, 7. Gaughan-448, 8. J. Buescher-418, 9. C. Buescher-414, 10. Cassill-399.
“ROWDY” KYLE IS 5 FOR 5 IN TRUCKS
“Rowdy” Kyle Busch has won all five truck races he has started this season. His latest win came last Thursday night at Kentucky Speedway.
Darrell Wallace Jr. was second, folowed by Ryan Blaney, Timothy Peters, Brad Keselowski, Matt Crafton, Austin Dillon, Ron Hornaday Jr., Johnny Sauter, and Ben Kennedy.
Top-10 leaders after 8 of 22: 1. Sauter-297, 2. Crafton-287, 3. Peters-286, 4. R. Blaney-285, 5. Hornaday-284, 6. Quiroga-272, 7. Kennedy-263, 8. Wallace Jr.-261, 9. Townley-257, 10. Coulter-242.
FORMER NASCAR TRUCK DRIVER INDICTED
A television station (WSOC Channel 9) in Charlotte reported that Brian Rose, former NASCAR driver is at the center of a $15 million fraud investigation and is accused of creating a fake coal mining company to get money from investors.
Federal agents launched an investigation into Brian Rose after an alleged victim from Charlotte came forward. In the indictment, Rose was named as the ringleader of the fake coal-mining scheme.
The defendants would call investors saying New Century Coal was looking to mine low sulfur and low ash coal in Kentucky and Tennessee, according to the documents. They promised a quarterly return of 6 percent until operations began. After that, investors would receive 100 percent or more during the first year of mining.
The indictment stated the nine defendants were very careful to cover their tracks. Two of them legally changed their names and attached those names to New Century Coal. The defendants also created ghost companies to ease investors' suspicions.
Prosecutors said the defendants also spent part of the $15 million on "lavish gambling trips to Las Vegas" and buying and training thoroughbred horses. All nine defendants are now charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. The Secret Service already seized a number of race cars, race horses and property from Rose and the other defendants
Weekend Racing: The Nationwide and Cup teams are at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. The trucks have an off week.
Fri., July 4, Nationwide Series race 16 of 33; Starting time: 7 pm ET; TV: ESPN2.
Sat., July 5, Sprint Cup race 18 of 36; Starting time: 6:30 pm ET; TV: TNT.
Racing Trivia Question: How many Truck Series titles has Ron Hornaday won?
Last Week’s Question: Which Cup team did Joey Logano drive for before switching to Penske Racing? Answer. It was Joe Gibbs Racing.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.
