February 2013 baseballjournal.com 5

AROUND THE REGION Presented by HomerunMonkey.comAROUND THE REGION Presented by HomerunMonkey.com

Woburn native to guide U.S. women’s teamonathan Pollard (Woburn, Mass.) was named manager of the USA Baseball’s women’s national team last month.

In 2011, Pollard was assigned as one of eight USA Baseball women’s coaches and in 2012,

a World Cup year, was assigned as pitching coach. The team won the sil-ver medal after losing the gold medal game to Japan.

This January, Pollard accepted a two-year position as manager of the USA Baseball women’s national team the American Baseball Coach-es Association.

“I am so honored,” Pollard said. “This will not be about having a good time. This is about winning gold. This is our American pastime, and I expect us to win at every level. USA Baseball certainly possesses the players, coaches and staff to consistently turn out gold-medal teams.”

Pollard currently is an owner of The Cage Baseball Training Center in Wo-burn. After playing college baseball for Salem State a decade ago, he joined the Vikings as an assistant coach in 2003.

Later that year, he coached women’s baseball for the first time, leading the Lady Spirit (the women’s team version of the North Shore Spirit of the Can-Am League) to a women’s national champi-onship. The Lady Spirit evolved to the New England Sox, and they won four more national titles from 2004 to 2007.

— BRETT RUDY

NECBL adds three teamsThe New England Collegiate Base-

ball League will add three expansion teams for the 2013 season, commission-er Sean McGrath announced last month.

The NECBL’s board of directors

approved new organizations to play in South Kingstown R.I.; Plymouth, Mass.; and Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Sara-toga is the first NECBL team to not be located in New England.

“All three organizations enjoy tremen-dous community support,” McGrath said. “We look forward to their participation in the NECBL family for years to come.”

The Rhode Island franchise, which will play as the Ocean State Waves, has a natural, built-in rivalry with New-port, Mystic and New Bedford. GM Dan Scaring previously ran the Saratoga

Phillies in the NYCBL. Meanwhile, Plymouth GM

Dave Dittmann, an NECBL veteran, also brings NYCBL experience from his days as general partner of the Am-sterdam Mohawks. Plymouth becomes the NECBL’s closest team to Boston.

As part of the expansion, realignment will see Laconia, Sanford, Ocean State, New Bedford, Newport, Mystic and Plymouth playing in the Eastern Division. Vermont, Keene, Saratoga Springs, North Adams, Holy-oke and Danbury will comprise the Western Division.

It is the 13-team NECBL’s first ex-pansion since the 2003 season.

Fishers tap AllensonThe Double-A New Hampshire

Fisher Cats have named former Boston Red Sox catcher Gary Allenson as their new manager.

Allenson replaces Sal Fasano, who has been named the new minor-league catching coordinator in the parent To-ronto Blue Jays organization.

Joining Allenson in New Hampshire will be new hitting coach Richie Hebner (Norwood, Mass.), an 18-year major-league veteran, and pitching coach Tom

Signore, who is back for his fourth sea-son with the Fisher Cats.

A native of California, Allenson spent eight of the past 10 years in the Orioles organization, most recently with the Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds. The bulk of his time with the Orioles came with the team’s Triple-A affiliate, where he earned his 1,000th win by pi-loting the Norfolk Tides past the Dur-ham Bulls on Aug. 23, 2011.

Mavericks turn to AdamThe Seacoast Mavericks of the FCBL

hired former minor-league pitcher and local high school coach Dave Adam (Shel-ton, Conn.) as their new manager last month. He becomes the team’s third manager in its three years of existence.

Adam spent eight years as the head coach at nearby Newmarket (N.H.) High School, guiding his teams to two state championship games.

A high school and college standout in Connecticut, Adam spent eight years playing affiliated minor-league ball, reaching the Double-A level. …

The North Shore Navigators of the FCBL named Jon Cahill (Peabody, Mass.) their new manager last month. He replaces Hebner after spending last season as an assistant coach and direc-tor of baseball operations.

Cahill, currently an assistant coach at Endicott College, graduated from UMass-Lowell in 2001 after playing four years of baseball, where he was an es-sential part of the 2001 team that reached the Division 2 College World Series for the first time in school history. Cahill also was inducted into the UMass-Lowell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Sox, Sea Dogs extendThe Boston Red Sox and Portland

Sea Dogs have agreed to extend their player development contract for an

additional four years, the teams an-nounced last month. The extension keeps the Red Sox’ Double-A affiliation in Portland through the 2018 season.

The Sea Dogs and Red Sox last ex-tended the affiliation in January 2011, when a two-year extension was an-nounced, running through 2014.

Caminucci joins D’backsChris Carminucci, one of the “founding

fathers” of the third-year Futures Collegiate Baseball League, has accepted a scouting position with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the FCBL announced last month.

Carminucci Sports Group has been influential throughout the first two years of the FCBL’s existence, possess-ing operating and ownership stakes in the Brockton, Torrington and Martha’s Vineyard franchises.

Carminucci’s baseball resume in-cludes scouting positions with the Phil-adelphia Phillies and Kansas City Roy-als, more than 250 wins as a professional baseball manager, and front-office expe-rience in the Can-Am League. …

New Red Sox manager John Far-rell was the headliner at the Falmouth Commodores’ hot stove dinner last month at the New Seabury Country Club. Farrell, Falmouth manager Jeff Trundy, Miami Marlins closer Steve Cishek (Falmouth, Mass.), free-agent pitcher Rich Hill (Milton, Mass.) and New York Yankees area scout Matt Hyde were in attendance for the event, a fund-raiser to rebuild the Eric Palmer Press Box at Guv Fuller Field. …

RBI Baseball Academy, a private/group baseball instruction and training center in Foxboro, Mass., will hold its annual Nomar Garciaparra Winter Hit-ting Clinic on Feb. 20-22.

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