20 Maryland baseball players to participate in collegiate summer leagues

Although the regular season has ended for Maryland baseball, most players are going to hone their craft, as well as their draft prospects, in summer leagues throughout the country.

A few players — such as Tyler Blohm, Will Glock, and Tommy Gardiner — are nursing injuries and won’t be playing this summer. Rising freshmen, who sometimes play in summer collegiate leagues, are coming to campus instead to get a start on learning the system. But almost all other players returning to College Park in the fall will be playing this summer. Terrapin ballplayers seem to play for the same teams year in and year out; that’s a result of the relationships Rob Vaughn and his staff have developed over time.

In summer collegiate games, hitters get to use wooden bats. That’s one reason professional scouts like to evaluate players there. In the upper echelon of leagues, scouts get to see the best upperclassmen battle it out among themselves. Regardless of the league a player is in, summer ball also offers the opportunity to work on improving specific aspects of their game.

At the top of the pecking order is the Cape Cod Baseball League, where a few games appear on national TV. Other premier leagues include the New England Collegiate Baseball League, Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League and Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League. The Terps are well represented within these leagues as well as other prominent collegiate leagues.

The following list of players and where they’ll be playing is shown below (props to Meghan Kane, Director of Baseball Operations at Maryland):

Cape Cod Baseball League

C Justin Vought — Brewster Whitecaps
LHP Sean Fisher — Brewster Whitecaps
RHP Zach Thompson — Brewster Whitecaps

New England Collegiate Baseball League:

OF Randy Bednar — Keene Swamp Bats
RHP Sean Heine — Keene Swamp Bats

LHP Billy Phillips — Mystic Schooners
INF Josh Maguire — Mystic Schooners

RHP Trevor LaBonte — Sanford Mainers
RHP Mike Vasturia — Sanford Mainers

Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League

LHP Andrew Vail — Bethesda Big Train
RHP Elliot Zoellner — Bethesda Big Train

Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League

1B/OF Maxwell Costes — Amsterdam Mowhawks
LHP Drew Wilden — Amsterdam Mowhawks

C Zach Doss — Adirondack Trailblazers

Futures Collegiate Baseball League

2B Ben Cowles — Nashau Silver Knights
RHP Daniel O’connor — Nashau Silver Knights
OF Ben Irvine — Nashau Silver Knights

Prospect League

OF Caleb Walls — West Virginia Miners
UTIL Michael Pineiro — West Virginia Miners
RHP Nick Turnbull — West Virginia Miners