College Notebook: Saugus’ Harper to pitch in Cape Cod League

There are worse things in life than spending the summer on Cape Cod, particularly if you’re Jason Harper and you’ve been invited to play for the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League.The Saugus resident and 2012 graduate of Northeast Regional Vocational Technical School was one of 74 players, including 26 pitchers, from 46 schools from around the country invited to try out for the final roster spots on The Cape Cod League teams.Harper, who was on the Franklin Pierce University the past two years but did not play this spring, impressed the coaches and scouts at the Frank Finn Cape League invitational tryout when he threw one inning and struck out all three batters. He didn’t allow a hit.”This (playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League) has been one of my dreams for a while, since I started playing baseball,” Harper said. “It’s incredible.”Harper is already down the Cape. The Gatemen have a preseason game scheduled for Sunday in Rhode Island and then they lay nearly every day until early August. Harper said he doesn’t know what his role will be, but he’s excited to be there.Harper grew up playing baseball in Saugus, first at the Little League level and then on to Babe Ruth.He was a Boston Globe Player of the Year as well as a Boston Globe all-scholastic selection in his senior year at Northeast Metro Tech High School. He was Commonwealth Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a senior.Harper, a 195-pound, 6-1 sophomore, said he does not plan to return to Franklin Pierce in the fall and is looking into other colleges.UVanderbilt University is headed for the College World Series, and while pitcher Tyler Beede grew up in the Worcester area, the first-round pick (14th overall) in the Major League Baseball Draft has plenty of local connections. Beede, who was picked by San Francisco, is the grandson of Lynn’s Richard Palleschi.Palleschi grew up in the Brickyard section of Lynn and attended St. Mary’s. Beede’s great-grandfather, Anthony Palleschi, was a member of the undefeated English High football team back in 1932 and Beede’s uncle, Bob Palleschi, played at St. Mary’s and now lives in Saugus. There are several other family connections as well.Beede had a 3.20 earned run average and an 8-7 record heading in the Super Regional last weekend. One of Beede’s teammates at Vanderbilt this year is former English High pitching standout Ben Bowden, who is a freshman on the team.Beede was slected 21st overall in the 2011 draft by Toronto coming out of high school, but he opted for college at the time.