The Boys Of Summer: Another Summer Of Success For Purcey

After spending last summer playing in Alaska, junior southpaw David Purcey chose to take his talent across country and play in the prestigious Cape Cod League in Massachusetts. Purcey talked about the differences in the two experiences and, after coming close to winning titles several times last summer, his team's battle to win a championship in one of the toughest collegiate summer leagues.

My baseball experiences in Alaska and the Cape were completely different. It's more of a family environment in the Cape. In Alaska there were kids at the games in the stands, but in the Cape we were playing on high school or middle school fields and the kids could stand right there next to you and they could basically do anything they wanted to. We actually had a couple of kids run across the field during a game. After the games, all the kids just charged the field wanting autographs. We had a game that lasted 22 innings that ended at 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning and people were still there hanging around and wanting autographs. They are seriously dedicated up there. They just want to enjoy seeing some of the best college players in the country that come up there.

The one thing that really sticks out in my mind is the atmosphere up there. Its so much different because its more personal, it's not just like you're out there playing. People research everything about you and they want to get to know you. You talk to the same people day in and day out and they're always there. They want to see who you are as a person, not just as a player.

Last summer, my summer team came in second place in the Alaska League and second place in the NBC World Series. Our team this year started off the season 0-4. Things just weren't working right -- people weren't playing well and we didn't have all of our players there yet, so things just weren't going well at all. Our coaches didn't panic at all they knew it was going to happen and that we would turn things around. They just gave us time and we started winning. We were kind of a streaky team we would win five out of seven games and then lose five of the next seven and it was just back and forth. Our coaches had a get on to us a bit, but it helped get our team focused.

We won the eastern division regular season by half a game. We just edged out Brewster it was really close at the end. It was pretty set in the western division -- they had Bourne and Hyannis, which were the two teams that were playing so much better than everyone else. In our division, we had teams that were in first place with like 10 games to go that dropped to fourth place by the end of the season and had a bunch of other teams that were all in the mix. Out of all the teams, our team at one point went from last to fifth to fourth and then kind of hung around the third and fourth position, but never being up around number one. Occasionally we'd peak for a while so eventually we came back up and won it.

During the playoffs, our coach talked to us and stressed to us that this is why we were there. Plus, we had a lot of guys on the team that wanted to take care of business and go home. Everyone at that point had been there eight weeks and wanted some time at home before heading back to school. When we won the first game of each series, it was just easier to win the rest and then go home.

Winning a summer championship is hard to explain because you're playing with a group of guys that you don't really know and getting to know them and learning how they play and then having to play with them and be successful. Cape Cod is supposed to be one of the best summer leagues there is, so when you play in the Cape and you end up winning it, you know you're pretty good at that point.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

The Boys Of Summer: Another Summer Of Success For Purcey

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