story by Steve McCarthy
June 25, 2010
FALMOUTH - Something had to give Friday night when
the two worst hitting teams in the Cape Cod Baseball
League squared off at Falmouth's Guv Fuller Field. The
host Commodores were able to generate a spark in the
middle innings and pull away from the Cotuit Kettleers
for a 10-3 win.
Falmouth used a
four-run sixth inning to distance themselves from a 6-3
margin, just as Cotuit was starting to build some
momentum. The win moved the Commodores (6-5) into first
place outright in the Western Division.
Last place Cotuit
fell to 2-8-1.
“We were all kind
of just on edge, not really swinging it too great,”
Falmouth's Nick Martini (Kansas St.) said. “We just
wanted to have a breakthrough night and I think tonight
was it.”
All but one
Falmouth starter recorded a hit and eight different
players scored. Martini led the way, going 3-for-4 with
2 RBIs. Matt Skole (Georgia Tech), K.C. Serna (Oregon),
and Kevin Medrano (Missouri St.) each had a pair of
hits.
“We talked about
always picking each other up,” Martini said.
“Tonight we picked each other up, whether someone
failed or not.”
Paul Hoilman (East
Tennessee St.) and Brooks Pinckard (Baylor) both went
3-for-4 for Cotuit, but the Kettleers left eight
baserunners stranded.
Both teams put up
double-digits in the hits column, with Falmouth taking a
13-11 edge.
“We had a couple
guys get us going early with a couple of big hits, and
everybody kind of relaxed up there and we started
hitting,” Skole said.
Falmouth
capitalized on two Cotuit errors, making two of the six
runs scored off Kettleers starting pitcher Nick Tropeano
(Stony Brook) unearned. Tropeano (0-2) took the loss,
needing 97 pitches to get through four innings. He
allowed eight hits, struck out six, and walked three.
“You face a good
guy every night on the Cape,” Skole said. “Getting
these guys to throw a lot of pitches makes them more
vulnerable to make mistakes.”
Falmouth starting
pitcher Miguel Pena (San Jacinto) went four and
two-thirds innings and held the Kettleers scoreless
through the first three, but did not factor in the
decision. All three of Cotuit's runs were charged to
him. Pena scattered seven hits, stuck out four, and
walked one.
Nate Kaneski (1-0,
Holy Cross) worked two-plus innings in relief to earn
the win. He allowed two hits and struck out one.
“(Kaneski) is a
great reliever, and he's been doing really good things
for us,” Martini said.
Rob Chamra (NC
State) pitched the final six outs.
The Commodores took
a 3-1 lead into the home half of the fourth inning when
Medrano rewarded two runners in scoring position with a
two-out opposite field base hit into left field. Martini
followed with a triple into the left field corner that
got under the glove of diving Cotuit left fielder
Michael Yastrzemski (Vanderbilt).
Hoilman hit an
RBI-double and pinch hitter Jordan Leyland (UC Irvine)
executed a sac-fly to plate Pinckard in the fifth inning
and end Pena's outing. Pinckard stole second and third
during Yastrzemski's at-bat. Yastrzemski walked and
advanced on a wild pitch and ground out to set up
Hoilman.
Cotuit reliever
Michael Devine (VMI) struck out two of the three batters
he faced in the fifth inning, but ran into trouble in
the sixth. He was touched for four runs on three hits
and David Colvin (Pomona-Pitzer) had to come on to stop
the bleeding.
Martini and Serna
each hit RBI-singles in Falmouth's breakout sixth inning
and Skole doubled off Colvin to drive in the game's
final run.
Cotuit will host
Yarmouth-Dennis on Saturday in a 5 p.m. game at Lowell
Park.
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