By Russ Waterman
MaxPreps.com
Ryan Westmoreland of Portsmouth High School, selected by the Boston Red Sox in the fifth round of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft, has signed a minor-league contract.
Westmoreland, who was also a National Honor Society member at Portsmouth, turned down a chance to attend Vanderbilt University on a full baseball scholarship.
The contract for the two-time Rhode Island Gatorade Player of the Year included a $2 million dollar signing bonus, payable over five years, and is the highest signing bonus ever for a player drafted after the third round.
Westmoreland has reported to the Red Sox affiliate of the rookie Gulf Coast League in Fort Meyers, Fla., and will then have another short stint at the club’s Class A affiliate in Lowell, Mass. He will finish his fall schedule at Fort Meyers at the end of September in the Instructional League.
“I’m going to be smart about it," Westmoreland said. "It’s a bonus, which is exactly what it is, a bonus. I’m going to be playing professional baseball and at the same time I got a real great bonus from a real great team that I’ve always wanted to play for.”
At Portsmouth last spring, Westmoreland batted .486 with 17 stolen bases, and was 7-0 with a 0.45 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 40 innings. He had a 19-strikeout perfect game and a 20-strikeout one-hitter.
This summer, while playing for the Bayside (N.Y.) Yankees in the Premier Baseball Association, he batted .557 (34-for-61) against some of the country's top young collegiate pitchers, slugging four home runs, driving in 26 runs, stealing 12 stolen bases without being caught, and having an on-base-percentage of .658.
“After scouting him over the summer, we came to consider him one of the best players in the draft,” said Red Sox scouting director Jason McLeod in an Aug. 17 Boston Herald article. “His bonus was reflective of that. He was too good to let walk without putting our best foot forward.”
Olympics: Beisel Swims to Finals
Swimmer Elizabeth Beisel, 16, a junior at North Kingstown High and the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team, qualified for two finals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Beisel finished fifth in the women’s 200-meter backstroke and fourth in the 400-meter individual medley.
In qualifying for the 400-meter IM final, Beisel posted the fastest qualifying time (4:34.55) of any competitor. Her fourth-place time of 4:34.24 in the finals was a personal best.
She advanced to the 200-meter backstroke final by posting the second fastest time in her semifinal heat at 2:07.90 Her fourth-place finish in 2:08.23 was three seconds slower than the 2:05.24 world record time of gold-medal winner Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.
Beisel qualified to swim in seven events at the Olympic trials. At the state championships held at the University of Rhode Island, she set state and pool records in the 200 freestyle in 1:47.38 (breaking record held by former Olympian Jenny Thompson) and in the 100 back with a time of 54.71.
Russ Waterman covers Massachusetts and Rhode Island for MaxPreps. He may be reached at rwathoop3@aol.com
