Mat-Su pitcher headed to the Cape Cod League

PALMER - The Alaska Baseball League and the Cape Cod League are recognized as the top two summer amateur baseball leagues in the

country.

The best college baseball players often play in one league one summer and the other league in the next. But it's fairly unusual for a player to compete in both leagues in the same

season.

Unusual, but not unheard of.

Just hours before Daniel Turpen was set to depart Alaska for his home state of Oregon on Monday, he got a phone call.

The Oregon State sophomore pitcher was wanted in the Cape.

The Yarmouth Dennis Red Sox are in need of another arm, and Oregon State pitching coach Dan Spencer knew Turpen, who had just completed his season with the Mat-Su Miners, was available and gave him a call.

&#8220We set it all up in the last few hours,” Turpen said just a half-hour before he was supposed to leave for the airport on Monday.

There are still two weeks left in the Cape Cod season, and the Red Sox have already notched a spot in the league playoffs.

&#8220A place like that, a lot of people can notice you,” said Turpen, who was 1-1 with a 3.24 earned run average in 25 innings this summer. &#8220It's a great place to get some extra innings.”

Turpen said he is a little disappointed by his work with the Miners this summer. While he struggled in some starts, he also showed why he was recruited by one of the top programs in all of college baseball. On July 10 he displayed that big league potential with a eight innings of shutout baseball in a 1-0 win over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. While allowing only two hits, he fanned seven and didn't walk a batter.

Turpen's trip East is just stage three of a whirlwind summer for the McMinnville, Ore., native. First he was part of an Oregon State Beaver squad that won a Division I national championship. Then he ventured to Mat-Su, and pitched for a club in the middle of a pennant race. Now he'll be in the Cape Cod League playoffs.

&#8220It's been a hectic time. From the national championships, next day going to Alaska. And now a day after the season ends I'm going somewhere else,” Turpen said.

Yarmouth Dennis calls South Yarmouth, Mass., home.

Wietlispach headed

to Wichita

The Havasu Heat of the Pacific Southwest League have picked up Mat-Su Miners starting pitcher Chris Wietlispach.

The Yale University sophomore will join the Heat, and pitch for the club during the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita,

Kan.

Wietlispach, a 2006 All-Alaska Baseball League selection, finished the season 4-2, with a 1.65 earned run average and 45 strikeouts in 43 innings.

Mat-Su, third in the ABL standings, missed an opportunity to compete in the NBC for the second times in three years.

The league-champion Peninsula Oilers had the option of picking up players from rival ABL squads before departing for the tournament. Mat-Su general manager Pete Christopher said the Oilers called the Miners to inquire about Mat-Su outfielders Joe Ercolano and Donald Brown.

Both Ercolano and Brown declined the invitation to join Peninsula for the tournament.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.