THOMAS

Brown’s best baseball season ended last weekend with losses to Texas, 8-2, and Wake Forest, 4-2, at the NCAA Austin Regional in Round Rock, Texas, but there’s still drama in the Brown camp for another day or two.

Catcher Devin Thomas, the unanimous Ivy League player of the year, and Jeff Dietz, the Ivy League pitcher of the year, hope to be selected in Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft tomorrow and Friday. And pitcher James Cramphin has his fingers crossed that someone will like his arm and give him a chance.

Thomas worked out for the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Monday. He started every game this spring for the 27-21 Bears and hit .372 with 16 home runs, 11 doubles, four triples and 64 RBI.

Dietz was 9-4 with a 2.81 ERA. He struck out 84 batters in 96 innings and threw seven complete games.

Cramphin, the No. 2 starter in coach Marek Drabinski’s rotation, was 6-4 with a 4.80 ERA. He had 86 strikeouts in 80 2/3 innings.

Cramphin went 8 2/3 innings against Wake Forest Saturday and scattered six hits, allowed three runs, two earned, walked one and struck out four.

“You can’t pitch any better than he did on Saturday. He pitched his heart out,” Drabinski said. “I hope he gets a shot with an independent team. He has a strong, quick arm for a guy his size (5-foot-11, 170).”

The Bears had the fewest victories in the 64-team tournament, but they proved they can play with the likes of No. 5 Texas of the Big 12 and Wake Forest of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Brown held a 2-1 lead over Texas in the sixth inning, but the Longhorns took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth, then added a run in the seventh and four in the eighth.

The game against Wake Forest was a beauty. Cramphin gave up two runs in the first and then stymied the Demon Deacons until the ninth. Robert Papenhause doubled in the third, advanced on Steve Daniels’s bunt single and scored on Ryan Murphy’s infield hit.

The score was still 2-1 in the ninth, when the Bears unraveled.

Despite the two losses, Brown still enjoyed an unforgettable experience.

“We battled and played and had chances in both games. Our starting pitchers gave us a chance,” Drabinski said. “It was a great atmosphere. We played in front of 9,500 people, and none of us had ever done that. We got a taste. Now we want to go back for more.”

He reminded his players, though, not to take things for granted. “They know how hard it is to get there.”

Stinson still starring

One of the heroes of 1996 Cranston Western Little League team that advanced to the championship game of the Little League World Series is still coming up big.

Craig Stinson (Cranston/Bishop Hendricken) is the starting catcher for Texas A&M, which won the College Station Regional Monday night with a 5-2 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette and is on its way to the NCAA Super Regionals. The Aggies (48-17) will play Rice (52-12), the second seed in the tournament, in a three-game series this weekend for a trip to the College World Series in Omaha.

Stinson started the action with his 12th home run of the season in the second inning, when A&M scored four runs. He made the all-tournament team.

Stinson has played in 59 games this season and is hitting .344 with 12 homers, 15 doubles, 2 triples and 50 RBI. He was the most valuable player of the Big 12 Tournament, which A&M won for the first time. He was 11-for-19 with a home run and 9 RBI. He had four hits and two RBI in the title-clinching 14-6 victory over Baylor.

Nagging injuries limited Stinson to 35 games in 2006. He red-shirted in 2005. He was second-team All-Big 12 in 2004 after starting 55 games and not making an error in 410 chances. He threw out 16 of 45 base-stealers.

As a freshman in 2003, he started 18 games at catcher.

Stinson played summer baseball in the Texas Collegiate League, Cape Cod League and Shenandoah Valley League.

Extra bases

Brown left fielder Ryan Murphy made the Austin Regional all-tournament team. He was 4-for-7 with a walk and an RBI in the two losses. … Brown’s backup designated hitter, J.J. Eno, is a second-team academic All-American, Brown’s first since 1987. A neuroscience major, he has graduated into Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School as part of the university’s liberal medical education program. … URI designated hitter Eric Larson made first-team All-Atlantic 10 after hitting .330 with 9 home runs and 35 RBI. He graduated from Brown a year ago but had a season of eligibility remaining and attended graduate school at URI. … Rhody’s freshman closer, Tim Boyce (Swansea), made the all-rookie team. He was fourth in the league with five saves. … URI was 1-2 in the A-10 Tournament and finished with a 23-30 record, 16-11 in the A-10.

mszostak@projo.com