MSU's Connor Powers Set For Cape Cod League's Home Run Derby

STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State third baseman Connor Powers will be among six players vying for top honors in the home run hitting contest prior to the Cape Cod Baseball League’s annual all-star baseball game Saturday afternoon in Chatham, Mass.

Powers, a rising junior, sports a .262 batting average and leads his summer CCBL team, the Brewster Whitecaps with five home runs and 22 RBI. Two other SEC players, LSU’s Blake Dean and Auburn’s Joseph Sanders, will join Powers in the long ball competition. Former Mississippi State standout Mitch Moreland won the Cape Cod Baseball League’s home run hitting contest during the wooden bat league’s all-star weekend competition in 2006.

As a sophomore in 2008, the Naperville, Ill., batted a team-leading .348 and belted 11 home runs with 48 RBI.

Powers is among several Diamond Dogs enjoying productive summer seasons of collegiate baseball league competition.

Sophomore outfielder Jason Nappi of Birmingham, Ala., and a teammate of Powers at Brewster, sports a .255 batting average Whitecaps and with 15 RBI ranks second on the club behind Powers. Also competing in the Cape Cod Baseball League this summer is junior pitcher Ricky Bowen of Jasper, Ala., who has crafted a 2-3 record with a 4.31 ERA and 33 strikeouts in six starts with the Bourne (Mass.) Braves.

A pair of Diamond Dogs competed in the Cal Ripken Senior Baseball League All-Star Game earlier this week in Bethesda, Md. Junior outfielder Luke Adkins of Nettleton, Miss., earned a CRSBL all-star team berth with a .309 batting average and 38 hits, second-most on his Bethesda team, the Big Train. Incoming MSU freshman pitcher Nick Routt, competing for Rockville, Md., also saw all-star game duty and currently sports a 1-3 record with a 2.72 ERA and 48 strikeouts in just under 40 innings of work. Opposing batters have hit .167 against Routt this summer.

Four Bulldogs are playing this summer in the Central Illinois Collegiate League. Senior pitcher Lee Swindle from Eupora, Miss., (3-2, 1.81 ERA) and junior right-hander Greg Houston of Hoover, Ala., (1-0, 4.26 ERA, 3 saves) pitch for the Danville Dans. Redshirt freshman lefty Shawn Marquardt of Carmel, Ind. (0-3, 4.26) pitches for the DuBois County Bombers while junior catcher Ryan Duffy of West Melbourne, Fla., (.328, 8 RBI) plays for the DuPage County Dragons and earned a berth on the CICL all-star roster.

Junior infielder Jet Butler of Pensacola, Fla., (.184, 4 RBI) plays for the Newport (R.I.) Gulls of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, while junior southpaw Tyler Whitney of Lakeland, Tenn., (2-0, 1.85 ERA) pitches for the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in the Alaska Baseball League. Senior outfielder Mark Goforth of Covington, Tenn., (.202, 9 SB) plays for Woodstock (Va.) in the Valley Baseball League.

Junior right-hander Drew Hollinghead of Leakesville, Miss., (2-1, 3.55) plays for the Niagara (N.Y.) Power in the New York Collegiate League while sophomore pitcher/infielder Michael Busby of Vicksburg, Miss., is a two-way performer for the Jackson-based Performance Sports Academy Gray team (2-2, 2.55 ERA, .276 BA).