The 2026 season is officially halfway done, and the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox have proven to
have the best pitching staff in the league. They have the Cape Cod Baseball League’s lowest
ERA (2.28), WHIP (1.15), wild pitches thrown (15), and walks per nine innings (3.30).
Even Y-D pitching coach Eric Beattie joked that he wanted to shout out “Johnny Whole-staff.”.
He praised the “connection” that each pitcher has with one another, as well as the “energy” they
each bring to the mound.
Here’s a look at Y-D’s magical aces.
Starters
One of this season’s most reliable starters has been Y-D’s Taylor Penn (Arizona State
University). With a 2.77 ERA and 9.6 strikeouts per nine, the right-handed thrower has pitched
13 innings this summer across three starts. He’s allowed only nine total hits and five walks, and
recorded 14 strikeouts. Most impressively, despite this summer having the smallest sample size
of innings pitched, he has the lowest ERA and WHIP (1.077) of his entire college career this
summer.
Right behind Penn is Connor Hamilton (Vanderbilt University) with a 2.92 ERA, which ranks
fifth on this year’s Y-D roster. With his signature noise cancelling headphones on before every
start, Hamilton has been a reliable starter for Y-D’s rotation.
Although he has not been the strikeout machine he was at Vanderbilt, where he averaged 9.9
strikeouts per nine innings, he’s still been a consistent asset who’s avoided giving up runs. Over
12 and ⅓ innings and four starts, he’s recorded a 1.216 WHIP, and only given up one home run
and five walks.
Another pitcher having a career-best season is the 6’9 right-hander, Hunter Watkins (Oklahoma
State University). With a 1.00 ERA, the ace has put up eight strikeouts per nine, averages one
run allowed per nine, and has allowed zero home runs over nine innings.
Youth has also made its way into the starting rotation.
Danny Nelson, who functions as a starter for Y-D but has also made his share of relief
appearances, is a rising sophomore at Clemson University. The right-hander holds an 0.61 ERA,
0.75 WHIP, and 11 strikeouts per nine this summer, all over two starts (14 and ⅔ innings).