story by Steve McCarthy
July 22, 2010
YARMOUTH - Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox starting pitcher
Michael Goodnight (Houston) has a fitting surname
considering the way his outing turned out Thursday. The
6-foot-5 righthander was one out from a no-hitter when
Cotuit Kettleer Michael Yastrzemski (Vanderbilt) lined a
base hit off his glove and into center field, but Y-D
won the pitcher's duel 2-0.
“That's actually
the closest I've been to a no-hitter, closest I've been
to a complete game,” Goodnight said. “After about
the first three innings, I knew I had good stuff. It was
just a matter of if I could keep locating.”
Goodnight struck
out a season-high nine while walking two to improve to
3-1.He faced just two batters over the minimum before
being replaced following Yastremski's single. Of his 29
batters, 12 grounded out.
“They were
chasing a lot of high fastballs,” Goodnight said. “I
just kept throwing it up there and they kept swinging
through them.”
Douglas Baxendale
(Arkansas) came on to get the final out and pick up his
sixth save.
Jordan Ribera's
(Fresno State) fifth inning home run (5) off Cotuit's
Brady Rodgers (2-1, Arizona St.) was one of just four
hits for the teams combined and proved to be the
game-winner. Y-D scattered three hits in the mix with
Rodgers' 10 strikeouts.
“He had been
trying to come in a lot to a lot of the lefties,”
Ribera said. “I think he just missed his spot a little
bit and I was just fortunate enough to just capitalize
on the mistake.”
Y-D (20-12) trails
Brewster by four points for the Eastern Division lead,
while Cotuit (16-14-2) fell back into a tie for first in
the West with Bourne.
Ribera added an
insurance run in the eighth inning after a leadoff
single. He advanced to third on Matt Watson's (Boston
College) hit and scored on a Matt Jensen (Cal Poly)
groundout.
“Matt Watson did
a great job on the hit-and-run,” Ribera said.
“(Matt) Jensen did a good 'Team at-bat' with a ground
ball up the middle.”
Rodgers walked just
one batter and needed 93 pitches to go the distance. He
found the strike zone with 68 of the offerings and
struck out nine in the first five innings. The walk was
the first Rodgers has allowed in 22 and two-thirds
innings this summer.
“He was throwing
all of his off-speed for strikes and he was spotting up
with his fastball,” Ribera said. “He kept us
guessing I felt a little bit.”
Cotuit will travel
to Hyannis on Friday before returning to Y-D's Red
Wilson Field on Saturday.
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