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2009
Cotuit Kettleers Game Recaps
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season stories
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Commodores
walk off with 4-3 win against Cotuit on
Cunningham’s two out single
story by Steve McCarthy
July 26, 2009
FALMOUTH - Falmouth’s Todd Cunningham
(Jacksonville St.) lined a two out base hit with the
bases loaded just out of the reach of Cotuit
shortstop Brandon May to give the Commodores a 4-3
walk-off win Sunday at Guv Fuller Field. The Cape
League’s batting leader worked a 3-1 count against
Cotuit reliever Mike Nesseth before driving his
second hit of the night. The Commodores used three
walks and a pair of sacrifices to load the bases for
Cunningham, who entered the game batting .393.
“That’s what you want is to get back to the top
of the order,” Cunningham said. “That’s
usually where you want it to be in the end of the
game, and it worked out for us tonight.”
Cotuit rallied in the eighth inning to tie the game
3-3, but Nesseth struggled with command in his
second inning of work. The Nebraska junior fell to
0-3 with the loss. He forced the final two outs of
the eighth inning before struggling to find the
strike zone. One of the walks was intentional.
“That’s the key to hitting, is laying off the
bad stuff and hitting the good stuff,” Cunningham
said.
The loss left the Kettleers (15-16-5) with more
ground to make up in the final weeks to catch the
Bourne Braves (18-13-2), who sit in second place in
the Western Division, one point behind the Wareham
Gatemen, who lost to Bourne 8-0 on Sunday. Falmouth
(14-19-1) trails Cotuit by six points in fourth
place.
“We’ve got a lot of great kids,” Falmouth
manager Jeff Trundy said. “But nobody works harder
than (Cunningham). I don’t think there’s a guy
on the team that would say differently. So for him
to be in that situation and to come through, it was
pleasing.”
Mark Pope (Georgia Tech) earned the win for
Falmouth, pitching a scoreless ninth inning. After
Cotuit’s Zach Cone reached on an error, Falmouth
first baseman Hunter Morris (Auburn) snagged a line
drive off the bat of Tony Plagman and doubled up
Cone. Jeff Rowland (Georgia Tech) then flied out to
left to end the Kettleers’ final at-bat.
Both teams struggled for hits against dominant
starting pitchers. Cotuit finished with seven hits,
while Falmouth had five. Cotuit’s Chad Bell
(Walters St. JC) kept Falmouth batters off balance
through the first six and two thirds innings. He
allowed two earned runs on three hits and struck out
10. He carried a one-hitter until the Commodores
tacked on two singles in the seventh inning.
“He’s a good pitcher,” Cunningham said. “He
has that off-speed pitch that nobody could really
touch, and it was working for him tonight.”
Bell was opposed by Nick Tepesch (Missouri), who
overcame a pair of second inning Cotuit runs (1
earned) to cruise through six innings. After the two
runs scored on Tony Plagman’s double to the center
field fence, Tepesch struck out six batters in a
row. He fanned eight total and allowed four hits.
“Nick struggled a little bit early in the
summer,” Trundy said, “But his last three starts
have been very, very strong. I think he’s really
gained confidence each time out.”
Falmouth responded in the third inning with a two
run frame of their own. John Nester (Clemson) scored
from first on Cunningham’s RBI-double. Cunningham
then came in on a fielding error by Cotuit second
baseman Chris Bisson (Kentucky).
The teams battled through the uneventful middle
innings, before the Commodores took their first lead
in the seventh inning when Chris O’Brien (Wichita
St.) led off with a single and advanced on a B.A.
Vollmuth (Southern Miss.) sac-bunt, before being
driven home by an RBI-single by Matt Skole (Georgia
Tech.)
Cotuit’s leadoff hitter, Bisson, legged out a
triple in the next inning and easily scored on a
check swing infield single by Zack Cox (Arkansas) to
tie the game 3-3.
Patrick Cooper (Des Moines CC) made his team leading
14th relief appearance and worked the two middle
innings to set up Pope. He allowed Cotuit’s third
run on two hits, along with a strikeout and a walk.
Ben Rowen (Virginia Tech) leads Cotuit with the same
number of appearances and was asked to record just
two outs before Nesseth entered.
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