story by Steve McCarthy
July 15, 2010
BOURNE - Nick Tropeano (Stony Brook) is the hard-luck
starter of the Cotuit Kettleers pitching staff. He has
tossed eight innings in each of his last two starts and
surrendered a combined three runs, but still has yet to
come away with that elusive first win.
On Thursday,
Tropeano (0-3) dueled with Bourne's Grayson Garvin
(Vanderbilt) and ended up on the short end of a 2-0
affair at Doran Park.
Tropeano retired
the first nine batters he faced before the Braves loaded
the bases in the fourth inning on a pair of singles and
a walk, and Daniel Bowman's (Coastal Carolina) two-run
line drive into the gap in left made the scoring
difference.
Bowman tripled off
Tropeano in Coastal Carolina's first of two NCAA
Regional wins over Stony Brook. The Chanticleers' lineup
featured three Bourne Braves.
“I kind of knew
the scouting report on (Tropeano) and tried to share it
with some of the other guys,” Bowman said. “Against
a great pitcher like that, you've got to see really what
he has. You can't just go off a scouting report. He
pitched a great game.”
Thursday's win gave
Bourne (14-12) a four-point cushion at the top of the
Cape Cod Baseball League's Western Division standings
ahead of Cotuit (11-13-2) and Falmouth, who are tied
with 24 points.
Cotuit has lost
consecutive games for the first time in July. Bourne
played its first game since Monday due to a rain-out and
a scheduled off day.
Tropeano
surrendered five hits, all coming in the fourth and
fifth innings, and struck out three. He walked three
batters and threw 70 of his 112 pitches for strikes.
Bourne leadoff
hitter Scott Woodward (Coastal Carolina) and Zack
MacPhee (Arizona St.) notched back-to-back hits to set
up Bowman, and Josh Elander (TCU) and Nick Ahmed (UConn)
singled in the fifth.
“Playing with
(Woodward) down at Coastal, that kid's always on
base,” Bowman said. “He just does a fantastic job at
the top of the order, setting the table for everything
else.”
Garvin (3-0) dealt
seven perfect innings and struck out five. He was
replaced after cresting the 100 pitch plateau. R.J.
Alvarez (Florida Atlantic) appeared in the eighth and
Tony Zych (Louisville) earned the save (7) after
striking out the first two batters he faced in the
ninth.
The Kettleers could
not connect two of their four hits together and went
down in order in six innings. Paul Hoilman (East
Tennessee), Chad Wright (Kentucky), and Levi Hyams
(Georgia) were all stranded in scoring position.
“It's a little
tough sometimes, because they're definitely a running
team,” Garvin said. “I definitely felt in control
and trying to get the pop outs or lazy groundouts so
those guys couldn't advance.”
Cotuit will host
Harwich on Friday at 5 p.m.
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